War Chest

Place the game board in the middle of the play area. Each player chooses a faction, taking their matching bag, royal coin, and six control markers. Two extra control markers per faction are used only in four-player games and can be returned to the box. Players place one of their control markers on each of the two faction-specific starting locations on their side of the board. For the first game, players are assigned specific unit cards and their corresponding unit coins. In future games, unit cards can be shuffled and dealt randomly, or players can draft units. Each player takes two coins from each of their chosen unit stacks and their royal coin, places them into their bag, and mixes them. An Initiative Marker is flipped to determine the first player, who receives the marker.

The primary objective of War Chest is to be the first player to place all of your control markers onto the board. These markers are placed when you control a neutral location or capture an opponent's controlled location.

Each round consists of two phases: Draw Coins and Use Coins. In the Draw Coins phase, each player draws three coins from their bag, keeping them hidden from opponents. In the Use Coins phase, starting with the player holding the Initiative Marker, players take turns performing one action per coin from their hand. Actions include: Deploy (place a unit coin face-up on an empty controlled location), Bolster (place a unit coin face-up on top of a matching unit already on the board to increase its strength), Move (discard a unit coin face-up to move a matching unit on the board to an adjacent empty space), Control (discard a unit coin face-up to place a control marker under a matching unit on a neutral location or replace an opponent's control marker), Attack (discard a unit coin face-up to have a matching unit attack an adjacent enemy unit, removing one coin from the attacked stack), Tactic (discard a unit coin face-up to execute a special ability listed on the unit card), Recruit (discard any coin face-down to take a unit coin from your supply and place it face-up in your discard pile), Claim Initiative (discard any coin face-down to take the Initiative Marker from your opponent, granting first turn in the next round), and Pass (discard any coin face-down without taking any other action). Turns alternate until both players have used all coins from their hand.

The game ends immediately when a player successfully places their sixth control marker on the board, making them the winner. This means that controlling locations is key to victory, and players must strategically manage their units and actions to achieve this goal before their opponent.

The game concludes when one player has successfully placed all six of their control markers on the board, or when one player concedes because they can no longer make moves or achieve victory. The player who placed their last control marker is declared the winner. If a player concedes, their opponent wins.