The king is staying in a faraway country. During his absence, his empire plunges into anarchy and chaos. As the country’s princes, the players try to strengthen their power and influence. New borders are drawn, and countries are redistributed. When the king returns, who will have secured the most valuable territories for himself/herself?

In front of us lies the empire that King Lionheart has left behind. The country is surrounded by borders and consists of pastures, forests, mountains with mines, villages, and the Royal City.

In every game, the terrains are arranged differently. That way, the starting situation is always new.

Two, three, and four players can play the game.

We will explain the game rules based on a game with two players. The character you are using is always depicted on the lower left. In a game with two players, the character used by the opponent appears in the upper right corner.

The goal of the game is to surround each of one’s own Castles with borders, in such a way that domains with forests and villages are formed that have the highest possible value.

Placing Castles and Knights

Before the actual game starts, the players take turns placing 4 Castles and a Knight next to each Castle. Castles can only be placed on pasture, and Knights on forest or pasture.

 
And: Castles of the same color must be at least 6 fields away from each other.

The left player in our example has placed his/her red Castles and the right player has placed his/her blue Castles, with one Knight per Castle. Since this is a game with two players, each one may afterwards place 2 additional “neutral” Castles with their adjacent Knights. These “neutral” Castles are omitted in a game with three and four players. In a game with three players, each one places 4 Castles, and 3 Castles in a game with four players. That way, there’s always a total of 12 Castles in the game area. The left player (red) has a hand of 3 cards.

A Turn

The “red” player starts the game. He/she decides to play the card “2 Borders” and clicks on it. Playing this card costs 3 ducats (red number on the left side of the card). At the beginning of the game, each player has 7 gold coins. The ducat reserves of the “red” player are thus reduced to 4 ducats. The player places the 2 borders above his/her red Castle.

By clicking on the card supply stack, the player then adds to his/her hand until holding 3 cards. In doing so, his/her turn ends automatically and his/her opponent continues.

The sold card appears in the Chancery. By clicking on the card supply stack, the “red” player adds to his/her hand until holding 3 cards. Automatically it is the next player’s turn.

A turn thus takes a very simple course:

1. Playing or selling a card

2. Adding to one’s hand until holding 3 cards

When adding to your hand, you may also take a card of your choice from the Chancery, instead of drawing a card from the supply stack. Just click on the card.

But: During one and the same turn, a card that you have just sold to the Chancery cannot be used again for the purpose of adding cards to your hand.

Building a Domain

If you successfully create an enclosed domain around one of your Castles by means of your borders (using the borders of the opponent and, of course, the margin of the game area), this domain is given a score. Every forest in a domain is worth 1 Victory Point and every village is worth 3 Victory Points. (The Royal City in the center is worth 5 Victory Points.) But since domains can change, these points are not assured. You can therefore lose your points again.

Apart from placing one, two, or three borders, there are another four card actions that will be introduced next.

1. Expand Domain

The symbol for “Expand Domain” consists of a coat of arms containing two diamond shapes. It can only be played if one already owns a developed domain. A player who decides to take this action is first requested to click on one of his/her domains. After doing so, adjacent fields that he/she could incorporate into his/her domain appear brightened. Clicking on a field annexes it to the domain. Up to two adjacent fields can be incorporated into one’s own domain that way.

2. Place Knights

When you select this action, you can place a Knight. A Knight can only be placed on pasture or forest. Placement on a forest field costs 1 ducat more. Moreover, a Knight always has to be adjacent to a Castle or a Knight of one’s own. Allowed fields also appear brightened.

What are Knights good for?

A player can expand into the adjacent domain of an opponent only if in that domain there are fewer Knights than in his/her own. It makes therefore sense to timely secure a valuable domain with a sufficient number of Knights, in order to be protected from losing valuable fields or to be able to expand into adjacent domains that belong to opponents.

3. Play Deserter

This action achieves that a Knight changes fronts. It can only be carried out if you have at least one developed domain with a Knight of your own. When a player clicks on a Deserter card, he/she first has to determine a domain of his/her own and then an adjacent domain of an opponent. Now the opponent has to remove a Knight from his/her domain, and the player can place a Knight there. Placing the Knight on a forest field costs 1 additional ducat.

4. Alliance

When clicking on this card, you select one domain of your own and one adjacent domain of an opponent. From now on until the end of the game, no expansions into adjacent domains can be made from either one of these two domains. Brightened borders between the two domains visually represent this “alliance”.

A Deserter can still be played between allied domains.

Cards with Double Symbols

Some cards allow a choice between two actions. When such a card is clicked on, one of the two actions must be selected. If you click on the card depicted on the left, you could either set 2 borders or expand one of your own domains by two fields.

Income from Mines

The four different mine types are shown below. At the beginning of his/her turn, each player receives as many ducats as he/she owns mine types in his/her domains.

Gold	Copper	Diamonds	Silver

Monopoly of Mines

Once a player owns 3 or 4 mines of the same type in his/her domain, he/she has the monopoly of this mine type. He/she receives 5 Victory Points for it. If a player loses his/her monopoly through an expansion on the part of an opponent, the 5 Victory Points are discounted again.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as a player reaches 50 Victory Points in a game with two players, 40 Victory Points in a game with three players, and 30 Victory Points in game with four players.

If the card supply stack is used up and none of the players has reached the number of Victory Points required to win the game, each player can sell or play his/her three cards. No further cards can be drawn from the Chancery. A player who has sold or played a card clicks on the ”Continue” arrow on the lower left and thus finishes his/her turn.

The game ends once the last card has been played or sold. The player or players with the most ducats receive another 5 Victory Points and the player or players with the second most ducats 3 Victory Points. The player with the most Victory Points wins. In case of a tie, the ducat reserves determine the winner.