Wonderland's War

The game board is placed centrally. Shuffle the region scoring tiles and place one face-up in each region. Create a supply of ally chip cards and ally chips nearby. Shuffle the Wonderlandian cards, draw and reveal three, placing matching standees or chips next to them. Place the shards and shard die in the center of the tea party. Separate the tea party cards by their round number (I, II, III) located on the bottom left. Shuffle each pile, then deal cards from the Round I deck face-up to tea party spaces based on player count (10 for 3 players, 12 for 4 players); do not deal cards to spaces with a player count exceeding the current number of players. Set the other tea party decks aside. Shuffle the quest cards, then draw and reveal one, placing the starting battle marker in the quest's indicated region; shuffle the quest back into the deck. Each player chooses a faction and receives their faction board, 14 supporters, 5 castle tokens, 1 faction leader figure, 5 faction starting chips (1,1,1,2,3), 5 faction artifact chips (3), 1 faction bag, 1 starting madness chip, 2 madness chips, 1 forge chip, 5 faction discs, 2 faction cylinders, and 1 shield token. Players place their supporters, castles, and ability discs next to their faction board. Four supporters are placed on the third forge track on the faction board. Faction artifact chips are placed on their matching symbols. Players prep their bag by placing the five faction starting chips, one faction artifact chip, one forge chip, one starting madness chip, and two regular madness chips into it. Place the faction disc on the score track, a faction cylinder on the start of the battle track, and another on the start of the leader strength track. Each player draws two quest cards, keeps one, and shuffles the other back into the quest deck. Randomly select a start player who takes three shards. Each subsequent player takes one less shard than the previous player in clockwise turn order.

The ultimate objective in Wonderlands War is to become the new ruler of Wonderland. This is achieved by accumulating the most victory points by the end of the third round. Players must strategically manage their factions, engage in tea parties to gather resources and allies, and win battles across the regions of Wonderland to secure points and control.

Gameplay unfolds over three rounds, each comprising two phases: the Tea Party phase and the War phase. In the Tea Party phase, the current round's tea party deck is shuffled, and cards are dealt face-up to the board's spaces. Players, in turn order, move their leader clockwise to any unoccupied plate with a card, taking the card and its listed benefits. If a player reaches the shard die icon, they must stop, roll the shard die, take the indicated number of shards (which provide negative victory points), and refill all tea party cards on unoccupied spaces before potentially continuing their movement; a player cannot pass the shard die icon more than once per turn. If a player already has four cards on their turn, they place their leader in a region of their choice. Once all leaders are placed in a region, the Tea Party phase ends. Cards acquired in this phase provide bonuses and add Wonderlandians to players' retinues. Before the War phase, each player gains one madness chip from the supply. The player(s) with the most shards gain an additional madness chip and discard half of their shards. In the War phase, players compete in each region where they have units, starting with the region containing the battle token and proceeding clockwise. Players determine their starting strength by combining strength from leaders, Wonderlandians, and tea party card bonuses, then set their strength trackers on the battle track. Active players simultaneously draw and reveal a chip from their bag, carrying out its effects. Madness chips are placed on the leftmost spot of the madness track, forcing the player to remove supporters from the region; if all supporters are removed, the player 'busts', removes their cylinder from the battle track, reduces their strength to zero, and moves active chips to the exhaust pile. To avoid madness, a player can flip a face-up shield token to its inactive side, returning the madness token to the bag and redrawing. If a player fills their madness track, they return all madness and exhausted chips to their bag before redrawing. Players can choose to stop battling by not drawing a chip, exiting the sequence until the battle outcome. If a player reaches 25 strength on the battle track, they automatically win that battle.

At the end of each battle, the two players who scored the highest and did not bust each gain a victory point award. The player with the highest strength gains the current round's VP award for that region (shown on the scoring tile) and places a castle in that region. Castles are worth bonus points in the end game. The second-place scorer gains half of the victory points. If players tie for first place, they choose to either gain the full award or place a castle. If a player is uncontested in a region, they automatically win the battle and can either take the points or place a castle. At the end of the third round, final scoring occurs. Players add acquired victory points, castle victory points (starting at 3 per castle, but can be increased in-game), and quest points (doubled if the quest was completed). However, players lose one point for each shard token they possess.

The game concludes at the end of the third round. After all battles have been resolved and awards assigned for the final round, players proceed to the final scoring phase. During this phase, all accumulated victory points, castle points, and quest points are tallied, and points are deducted for any remaining shards. The player with the highest total score is declared the winner and the new ruler of Wonderland.