蒼天之死 (Death of Heaven)

蒼天之死 (Death of Heaven) Rulebook

Table of Contents

How to Read This Rulebook

The rulebook contains 5 kinds of callouts:

Attention (注意): Must read. Game details players often overlook.
Term explanation (名詞解釋): Key terms used often in the game; memorize them or consult them frequently.
Strategy tip (策略提示): Recommended reading. Small reminders about action choices, to avoid falling into unpleasant predicaments after certain choices.
Example (範例): Can be skipped at first. If a rule reads strangely, use the examples to check your understanding.
Design note (設計說明): Read when you have time. The designer's remarks: what the designer was considering, sometimes to fit the historical background, sometimes to keep the game flowing.

For your first game, it is recommended to read only "Your First Game (Simple Rules)". After you are more familiar with the game, read "Playing the Standard Game (Full Rules)".

Game Components

Map board (referred to as the "map"): 1
NPC tiles: 38
Strength tally markers: 4 (2 for the Attacker, 2 for the Defender)
Public armament cards: 76
Wandering general cards: 14
Attack target marker: 1
Troop-type symbol markers: 20
Armament card board: 1
Wandering general board: 1
Emperor Xian card: 1
Merit card: 1
Faction starting cards: 102 (9 factions)
Faction boards (referred to as "boards"): 9
Faction cubes (referred to as "cubes"): 196 — Cao Cao 24, Liu Bei 19, Liu Biao 24, Lu Bu 19, Sun Ce 24, Yuan Shao 24, Ma Teng 19, Yuan Shu 19, Liu Zhang 24
Faction handbooks: 9
Attacker marker: 1
Stance cards: 9
Promise cards: 10

Component Details

Cards

Each player receives a set of faction starting cards, expressing the unique strategy of each faction. As the game proceeds, players may add more public armament cards or wandering general cards to their hand.

Attack / Defense: The troop-type symbols on a card with the red (Attack) banner accumulate strength for the Attacker. The troop-type symbols on a card with the green (Defense) banner accumulate strength for the Defender.
Troop-type symbols: There are 3 troop types: infantry (black icon), cavalry (red icon), navy (blue icon). A troop-type symbol is counted for strength only if it matches the troop type marked on the attack target territory. Each matching troop-type symbol provides 1 strength.
Scheme value: Some card effects require comparing scheme values (with other players or with other cards) before they can be executed.
General skills: There are 5 kinds. When a player plays the card, they may choose to trigger these effects.
Card main type: Shows whether the card is a general card or an armament card.
Card name: Shows the name of the card.
Faction: The faction the card belonged to at the start of the game. Different factions are also distinguished by different background colors in this field (for example, Cao Cao is red, Yuan Shao is yellow). If it is marked "Wandering" (在野), the card is a wandering general card. If there is no marking at all, the card is a public armament card at the start of the game.
Card subtype: There are 3: General / Troop / Scheme.
Unique skill: The effect a player may choose to trigger when playing the card.
General biography and card number.

Faction Board

Battlefield: Cards a player plays from hand are placed on the battlefield until the Cleanup phase or until they are discarded by other skills.
Deck: Cards are shuffled face down and placed here for players to draw from. When performing "draw N", draw that number of cards from the deck into your hand. When a player needs to draw and the deck area has no cards, shuffle the discard pile face down and stack it as the deck.
Cube area: Holds cubes of the matching color. When you need to take cubes, take from the spaces with the larger numbers first. When cubes return to the board, fill the spaces with smaller numbers first.
Discard pile: In the Cleanup phase, all cards on the battlefield move to the discard pile. When discarding cards from the battlefield or hand without special instruction, they also go to the discard pile.
Round flow reminder: reminds players of the round sequence.
Faction summary: reminds players of the faction's special ability and starting card composition.

Territories

Cities on the map are called territories.

Territory name.
Territory space: Holds faction cubes, showing which player owns the territory. A territory may hold multiple cubes, but they must all belong to the same faction.
Suited troop type: When this territory is designated as the attack target, the troop-type symbols on cards in a player's battlefield must match the troop type marked on the territory to count for strength.
Territory level: The number of faction cubes placed on the territory's spaces. 1 cube counts as 1 territory level, regardless of the number in the space.
Paths: The land and water routes between cities. Water routes are shown by the white dashed lines in the rivers and the water nodes in front of city docks. From the water node in front of one city to the water node in front of another counts as one valid path.
Adjacent (鄰接): Two territories directly connected by a path (without passing through any other territory or water node) are called adjacent to each other.

Example: Take Xiangyang. By land it is adjacent to Shangyong; by water it is adjacent to Wan, Jiangxia and Jiangling. But the water route between Xiangyang and Changsha must pass through Jiangling or Jiangxia, so Xiangyang and Changsha are not considered adjacent.

NPC Tiles

At the start of the game, territories with no faction cubes placed on them receive an NPC tile, indicating that the territory belongs to a non-player character (NPC) faction.

Faction name and territory name.
Faction background color: Indicates which NPC faction the territory belongs to. If it is gray, that faction has only this 1 territory.
Suited troop type: When this territory is designated as the attack target, the troop-type symbols on a player's battlefield cards must match the troop type marked on the tile to count for strength.
Territory level: A gray circle [●] indicates the territory's current level. When a player occupies this territory, the NPC tile is removed and the same number of player faction cubes are placed on the territory spaces. A white square [□] indicates the number of spaces available for upgrading the territory.
Diplomacy space: Shows which player faction is friendly with this territory. Each NPC territory has only 1 diplomacy space.

Your First Game (Simple Rules)

Game Setup

Choose factions. According to the number of players, players choose factions from the following options:

4 players: Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Liu Bei, Sun Ce
5 players: Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Liu Bei, Sun Ce, Liu Biao
6 players: Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Liu Bei, Sun Ce, Liu Biao, Yuan Shao

Setting up the personal area

Take the faction's components. Each player takes the chosen faction board, faction starting cards, faction handbook, and faction cubes of the matching color.

Fill the cube area on the faction board with cubes of the matching color. Remove the unused faction boards, starting cards, handbooks and cubes from the game.

Attention: Your faction cubes should exactly fill all the empty spaces in the cube area.

Draw the starting hand. Each player shuffles their faction starting cards face down and places them to the left of the board as the deck, then draws 4 cards into hand. You may choose any number of cards from your hand to put into the discard pile, then draw from the deck until you have 4 cards in hand.

Attention: The player who chose Lu Bu first picks out the 2 Lu Bu cards as his hand, then shuffles the remaining starting cards face down and places them to the left of the faction board as the deck, and draws 2 cards into hand. He does not perform the discard-and-redraw.

Strategy tip: Players other than the Lu Bu player may perform the discard-and-redraw. In the first round, every player except Cao Cao may be designated as the attack target. It is recommended to keep an appropriate number of Defense cards in hand, or to discard some Attack cards in exchange for a chance to draw Defense cards.

Decide the first round's Attacker. The player who chose Cao Cao is the Attacker of the first round. The Cao Cao player takes the Attacker marker and the attack target marker and places them in front of himself.

Set up Stance cards. The simple rules do not use Stance cards; remove the Stance cards from the game.

Setting up the public area

Components: Emperor Xian card, armament card board, strength markers, troop-type symbol markers, Merit card, Promise cards, wandering general board, map.

Set up the map. Place the map in the middle of the table.

Set up each faction's starting territories. Each player takes cubes from his own faction board and places them in the spaces [○] on the map marked with his faction's color.

Attention: When taking cubes, start from the spaces with the larger numbers on the faction board.

Example: Puyang, Luoyang and Chang'an each have 1 [Cao Cao-colored circle]; Cao Cao takes cubes from his board and places 1 each on Puyang, Luoyang and Chang'an to fill the circle spaces. Xudu has 2 circles; Cao Cao takes 2 cubes from his board and places them on Xudu to fill the circle spaces.

Set up NPC territories. Place the corresponding NPC tile on every territory on the map that has no faction cubes (check the territory names on the map against those on the NPC tiles). Remove the unused NPC tiles (those whose territory on the map already has faction cubes) from the game.

Set up the public deck. Place the armament card board beside the map. Shuffle the public armament cards face down and place them in the left-hand space of the board, forming the public deck.

Public deck: Stacked face down to the left of the armament card board. When the public deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile on the right of the armament card board face down and place it on the left, forming a new public deck.

Set up the wandering deck. Place the wandering general board beside the map.

From the wandering general cards, pick out "Zhuge Liang" and place it face down in the leftmost space.
Shuffle the other wandering general cards face down and stack them on the leftmost space of the board (on top of "Zhuge Liang"), forming the wandering deck.
Turn up 3 cards from the top of the wandering deck and place them face up in the other empty spaces of the board.

Wandering deck: Stacked face down on the left side of the wandering general board. Whenever an empty space appears on the wandering general board, move the cards from left to right to fill the spaces, then draw 1 card from the wandering deck and place it in the space marked with the 3-discard marking (the leftmost card space). When the wandering deck is used up, just move the cards on the board to the right; no new cards are added.

(The three card spaces of the wandering general board are marked, from left to right, with 3 discard marks, 2 discard marks, and 1 discard mark; see "Recruit" under General Skills.)

Set up Promise cards. Remove the Promise card "When the Attacker wins, the extra occupied territories belong to you" from the game.

4 players: Remove the Promise cards marked 5+ and 6 players in the lower right corner from the game.
5 players: Remove the Promise cards marked 6 players in the lower right corner from the game.

Place the remaining Promise cards beside the map for use.

Set up other components. Place the strength markers (2 Attack and 2 Defense), troop-type symbol markers, Emperor Xian card and Merit card beside the map for use.

Set up starting diplomacy. Each player takes cubes from his own faction board and places them in the diplomacy space of the designated NPC tiles:

	4 players	5 players	6 players
Cao Cao	Beihai, Jiangxia	Lujiang, Changsha	Changsha
Liu Bei	Hanzhong, Wan	Hanzhong, Wan	Hanzhong
Liu Biao	-	Shouchun, Ye	Shouchun
Lu Bu	Runan, Lujiang	Runan, Wuling	Wan
Sun Ce	Shouchun, Ye	Beihai, Tianshui	Runan
Yuan Shao	-	-	Lujiang

Design note: Placing a faction cube on an NPC territory represents that faction establishing friendly relations with that NPC. This setup is meant to help players complete their first game smoothly; it is not drawn from the historical diplomatic situation.

Game Flow

Each round of the game proceeds through the following 8 phases in order, until the game ends:

Declare War (宣戰): The Attacker designates the attack target.
Persuade (拉攏): The Attacker and Defender hand out Promise cards to other players to win their support.
March (進軍): All players place 1 card from hand face down on the battlefield, then reveal and execute them in order.
Reinforce (增援): The side behind in strength keeps playing cards and executing skills.
Resolution (結算): The side ahead in strength wins and collects the rewards of the Promise cards and the Merit card.
Dispatch (傳令): Players draw cards.
Cleanup (整理): Cards on the battlefield go to the discard pile. Check whether an end-of-game condition has been met.
Bidding (競標): Bid for next round's Attacker.

1. Declare War

The Attacker designates 1 territory or NPC tile as the attack target, and places the attack target marker on it.

It may be another player's territory.
It may be an NPC tile, whether its diplomacy space is empty or holds another player's cube.
It may not be the Attacker's own territory.
It may not be an NPC tile whose diplomacy space holds the Attacker's cube.
It must satisfy the adjacency rule.

Adjacency rule: The attack target must meet one of the following conditions:

It is adjacent to a territory holding the Attacker's cubes.

It is adjacent to an NPC tile holding the Attacker's cube. (For the definition of adjacent, see the term explanation "Adjacent" on page 7.)

Attention: If the NPC tile's faction has multiple tiles, and other tiles hold the Attacker's cubes: the Attacker must return the Attacker's cubes on the diplomacy spaces of all tiles of that NPC faction to the Attacker's board. Only if the Attacker still satisfies the adjacency rule after returning the cubes may that NPC tile be designated as the attack target.

Attention: Designating the attack target only requires satisfying the adjacency rule; even if the attack target is not adjacent to any Attacker territory, that is fine.

Example: Lu Bu is the Attacker, and the territory Xiapi has a Lu Bu cube (black) on its territory space. By the adjacency rule, he designates Shouchun as the attack target.

Example: Sun Ce is the Attacker, and the NPC tile Wan has a Sun Ce cube (orange) on its diplomacy space. By the adjacency rule, he designates Xudu as the attack target.

Example: The NPC tile Beihai has a cube of the Attacker, Cao Cao (red), on its diplomacy space, so by the adjacency rule he may designate Xiapi as the attack target, even though Xiapi is not adjacent to Cao Cao's territories.

Design note: As long as adjacency runs through a friendly NPC tile, the Attacker does not need to gather a great army from his faction's territories and set out in force, which would go against the usual imagination of marching to war. This simple design strengthens the diplomatic value of NPCs: by establishing friendship with the NPC tiles behind an opponent, you can make him feel thorns at his back. It also avoids repeatedly checking whether the marching route is unobstructed; the simple adjacency rule lets you judge intuitively where can become an attack target.

Collect rewards:

Defense reward: For each of a player's own cubes on the attack target (a cube on a territory space or on a diplomacy space both count), that player draws 1 card from his own deck into hand.
Adjacency reward: If a player has his own cubes (on a territory space or diplomacy space) on territories or NPC tiles adjacent to the attack target, for each such territory he draws 1 card from the public deck into hand.

Attention: Each adjacent territory yields only 1 public deck card, regardless of how many cubes are on that adjacent territory.

2. Persuade

The Attacker takes the Attacker Promise card, and the Defender takes the Defender Promise card.

The Attacker and Defender may place their Promise cards in front of other players to win their support.

Content of the agreement: You may agree with the other player that in the coming phases he will play an Attack or Defense card (as appropriate), or even go further and require him to play a card with a specific skill, to make specific choices when triggering a card's skill, or to take other actions or choices consistent with the rules.
Force of the agreement: A player's verbal agreement need not be honored. However, once a Promise card is placed in front of another player it cannot be taken back, nor transferred to another player — unless the player holding the Promise card has on his battlefield a card of a different Attack/Defense type from that Promise card.

Attention: Unless it is by executing a card skill, players may not on their own initiative transfer cards, cubes or territories to other players.

Holding Promise cards: A player may have multiple Promise cards in front of him, and may hold both the Attacker's and Defender's Promise cards at the same time. But the Attacker and Defender may not give Promise cards to each other.
Taking back Promise cards: If the player holding a Promise card has on his battlefield a card of a different Attack/Defense type from that Promise card, the Attacker/Defender may at any time before Resolution take back the Promise card he issued. A card taken back may be given to another player or kept.

Attention: Promise cards not issued in the Persuade phase may still be given to other players, or kept by the Attacker/Defender himself, before Resolution. The rewards on a kept Promise card belong to the Attacker/Defender himself.

Attention: If the attack target is an NPC tile, the Defender is an NPC faction, and no player takes the Defender Promise card — including the player who has a cube on that NPC tile (who only has a diplomatic relationship with that NPC faction and is not the owner of that territory).

Public information: The number of cards in a player's hand and his faction handbook are public information. If another player asks about the contents of his hand, a player may decide freely to tell the truth, lie to mislead, or decline to answer, but may not show the contents of his hand.
Hidden information: The number of cards in a player's deck, the number of cards in his discard pile, and the contents of his discard pile are hidden information. A player may look at them himself at any time (but may not look at the contents of the deck). When other players ask, a player may decide whether to tell them.

Term explanations

Attacker (攻方): The player holding the Attacker marker.

Defender (守方): The player designated as the attack target. The Defender may be an NPC faction.

Ally (友方): Other players with the same Attack/Defense type as you.

Enemy (敵方): Other players with a different Attack/Defense type from you.

Supporter (支援方): Players other than the Attacker and Defender who have cards on the battlefield.

Neutral (中立方): Players other than the Attacker and Defender who have no cards on the battlefield.

Strategy tip: Other players may actively seek a Promise card from the Attacker or Defender through promises, analysis of advantage and risk, declaring that they will trigger a certain skill, claiming to hold a certain kind of card in hand, and so on.

Strategy tip: Promise cards represent the distribution of benefits after the war is won. If you keep too many Promise cards without issuing them, other players may choose to help the other side because you would take too much of the benefit alone; if you issue all Promise cards, then after winning you may get no benefit yourself and only work for the benefit of others.

3. March

Each player secretly chooses 1 card from hand, places it face down on the battlefield, and then all players reveal them together.

If the Attacker plays a Defense card, it is discarded immediately upon reveal, and the card is not executed.
If the Defender plays an Attack card, it is discarded immediately upon reveal, and the card is not executed.

Execute cards starting with the Attacker, then proceed clockwise to the next player. After one player has finished executing his card (or given up executing it), the next player executes his card.

Attention: The following situations cause a player's card to be discarded before it is executed, so when his turn comes there is no card on his battlefield to execute. This still counts as having executed a card; move on to the next player:

If the Attacker played a Defense card.

If the Defender played an Attack card.

Another player who executed a card earlier executed a skill that discards a card from his battlefield.

Tallying strength:

When it is a player's turn to execute a card's skills, first check the troop-type symbols on the card (infantry / cavalry / navy). If a symbol matches the attack target's suited troop type, each such troop-type symbol adds 1 point of strength.

If the card is an Attack card, use the Attack strength tally markers to accumulate strength on the strength tally table at the upper left of the map.
If the card is a Defense card, use the Defense strength tally markers to accumulate strength on the strength tally table at the upper left of the map.

When strength exceeds 30, take 1 strength tally marker and place it in the "30+" space; strength above 30 is tallied with another strength tally marker. When strength exceeds 60, take 1 strength tally marker and place it in the "60+" space; strength above 60 is tallied with another strength tally marker.

Example: Attack strength accumulates to 33: place 1 Attack strength tally marker on "30+" and 1 Attack strength tally marker on "3" of the strength tally table.

Example: Defense strength accumulates to 67: place 1 Defense strength tally marker on "60+" and 1 Defense strength tally marker on "7" of the strength tally table.

Attention: Strength is accumulated compulsorily, and is accumulated before executing the card's skills. Even if a player gives up executing all of the card's skills, the strength is still accumulated. But if a card on the battlefield leaves the battlefield because of another skill, the strength that card provided is deducted from the strength tally table.

Scheme value (計謀值): Each scheme symbol [red circle] on a card provides the player 1 point of scheme value. A player's scheme value is the total of all the cards on his battlefield. Scheme value is not shown on the strength tally table, and each player's scheme value is calculated separately; it is not accumulated onto other allies.

Strategy tip: Some skills require you to compare scheme values (with other players or with other cards) before they can be executed. Accumulating scheme value makes it easier for you to execute some skills, and can also block other players from executing certain negative skills on you.

Executing skills:

Skills are divided into general skills and unique skills.

The symbols marked in the left sidebar of the card (below the troop-type symbols and scheme value) are general skills. The timing of general skills is always Immediate.

The skills described in text below the card are unique skills. Unique skills are divided into 4 timings: Immediate, Ongoing, Resolution and Cleanup.

For skills whose timing is Immediate, the player may freely arrange the order of execution, whether general skills or unique skills. But one skill must be completely executed before the next skill can be executed.

General Skills

Armament [yellow icon]: Draw 1 card from the public deck into hand.
Talent [dark icon]: Choose one of the following two:
- Recruit: Choose 1 card from the wandering general board into hand, and discard the number of cards from hand indicated below that space.
- Dispatch: Draw 1 card from your own deck into hand.
Upgrade Territory [brown icon]: Take 1 cube from your faction board and place it on an empty space on your territories. You must first choose the empty space with the smaller number among all your territories (the space marked [○] has number 1; if a [○] space is an empty space it must be chosen first).

Attention: If you have no empty territory spaces, you can only choose to give up executing the [Upgrade Territory] skill.
Duel [blue icon]: If none of the cards on the battlefields of all enemy players has the [Duel] icon, draw 1 card from your own deck into hand.
Diplomacy [green icon]: Choose one of the following three:
- Tribute: Take 1 cube from your faction board and place it in the topmost, leftmost empty space of the Emperor Xian card.
  
  Strategy tip: Tribute may make the game end early; see Game End on page 17.

Unique Skills

Unique skills are described in the text field below the card. The bold text is the skill's name and timing; the other text is the skill's effect.

There are 4 timings:

Immediate: Executed when it is your turn to execute the card, or when you play the card.
Ongoing: The card continues to execute while on the battlefield; some designate a trigger condition.
Resolution: In the Resolution phase, while the card is still on the battlefield.
Cleanup: In the Cleanup phase, while the card is still on the battlefield.

Attention: A player may give up executing some or all skills. But once he decides to execute a skill, he must execute it as completely as possible; he may not pick only one part of a skill to execute. If a skill cannot be executed completely, see the explanation of that skill in the faction handbook.

Attention: When executing a card's skill, you must read the text of that skill aloud to the other players. If the skill's timing is Ongoing, Resolution or Cleanup, the player must read it aloud on his own initiative in advance when playing the card; if it was not read in advance, then afterwards the skill cannot be executed even if its timing and conditions are met.

Strategy tip: Before executing a card skill, if the skill will greatly affect other players, you can use it as a bargaining chip to actively seek Promise cards. If the card skill can be executed in different ways or on different targets, these details of execution can also be used as bargaining chips.

Common skill explanation: Adding [infantry] / [cavalry] / [navy] to a designated card. Take the designated troop-type symbol markers from the reserve area beside the map and place them on the designated card. The symbols placed on it count as that card's troop-type symbols, and are compulsorily accumulated onto the Attack/Defense strength tally table (if the attack target matches the suited troop type). If the card leaves the battlefield, the strength provided by the troop-type symbol markers is deducted from the strength tally table.

4. Reinforce

After each player has executed, in order, the card skills of the March phase (or been skipped because there was no card on the battlefield), check the Attack and Defense strength tally markers. The side behind in strength decides whether to continue playing cards from hand. If strength is still behind after playing a card, it may keep playing cards, until its strength exceeds the other side's.

For cards played in the Reinforce phase, the player may freely decide whether to execute the card's skills (as in the March phase), but may not skip the accounting of troop-type symbols and scheme value.

When the Attacker is behind: The Attacker, Attacker's supporters and neutral players may all play cards, and may only play Attack cards; the order of playing is decided by the Attacker. If both sides are tied in strength, the Attacker is considered behind.

When the Defender is behind: The Defender, Defender's supporters and neutral players may all play cards, and may only play Defense cards; the order of playing is decided by the Defender.

When the attack target is an NPC tile and the Defender is behind: Neutral players play first. If there are no neutral players, the Defender-supporting player with the fewest cards on the battlefield plays. If the number of cards is the same, play proceeds clockwise starting from the Attacker. Only Defense cards may be played. When it is a player's turn, he may first choose to skip, and play after other players have played. But if all Defender supporters and neutral players choose to skip, go to the Resolution phase.

Attention: A player cannot play a card with a different Attack/Defense type from the cards on his own battlefield. For a card skill that lets a player switch Attack/Defense type, he is usually first required to discard all cards on his battlefield, and afterwards play a card of a different Attack/Defense type.

Attention: The Attacker and Defender players can only decide the order of playing cards, and cannot refuse a player's playing a card. You can keep asking a certain player to play a little later. If, after you or other players play cards, you enter the Resolution phase with the lead in strength, that player loses the chance to play. But if you and the other players have all given up playing, and you are behind in strength, you cannot refuse that player's playing.

Entering the Resolution phase: When one of the following conditions is met, the Reinforce phase ends and the Resolution phase begins:

The side behind (including supporters of the Attacker and neutral players) gives up playing cards.
One side "declares defeat" because of some card skill.

5. Resolution

Defender Wins

Condition: the Attacker's strength is behind, or the Attacker "declares defeat" because of some card skill.

Merit card: Flip it to the "Defender wins" side. The player with the most Defense cards on the battlefield receives the Merit reward. If 2 or more players tie for the most Defense cards on the battlefield, each player with the most Defense cards receives the Merit reward. If the player with the most Defense cards on the battlefield has only 1 such card, no one receives the Merit card's reward.

Attention: If a card on the battlefield has a special skill whose timing is Resolution, execute the card skill first, then collect the Resolution rewards. But if that player did not read the skill text aloud when playing the card, it cannot be executed in the Resolution phase.

Promise cards: A player with a Defender Promise card in front of him receives the reward on that Promise card, whether or not that player has a Defense card on his battlefield. Ignore the Attacker's Promise cards.

"When the Defender wins, you upgrade 1 territory." Execute [Upgrade Territory] once. See Upgrade Territory, page 13.
"When the Defender wins, you may execute 1 [Diplomacy] action other than Tribute and Self-Reliance (Friendship, Induce Surrender)." Execute Friendship or Induce Surrender once. See Friendship and Induce Surrender, page 13.

When the Defender is an NPC faction: There is no Defender Promise card, and Attacker Promise cards are ignored. A player with a Defense card on the battlefield chooses one of the following two rewards:

Execute [Upgrade Territory] 2 times.
Execute Friendship or Induce Surrender once.

Also:

If the Defender is behind and the Attacker, Attacker's supporters and neutral players all give up playing cards: enter the Resolution phase as an Attacker win.
If the Attacker "declares defeat" because of some card skill: regardless of the strength of both sides, enter the Resolution phase as a Defender win.
If the Defender "declares defeat" because of some card skill: regardless of the strength of both sides, enter the Resolution phase as an Attacker win.

Attacker Wins

Condition: the Defender's strength is behind, or the Defender "declares defeat" because of some card skill.

Merit card: Flip it to the "Attacker wins" side. The player with the most Attack cards on the battlefield receives the Merit reward. If 2 or more players tie for the most Attack cards on the battlefield, each player with the most Attack cards receives the Merit reward. If the player with the most Attack cards on the battlefield has only 1 such card, no one receives the Merit card's reward.

Attention: The simple rules do not use Stance cards. When Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Lu Bu or Sun Ce receives the Merit reward, he takes 1 cube from his faction board and places it on the Emperor Xian card. When Liu Bei or Liu Biao receives the Merit reward, he takes 2 cubes from his faction board and places them on the Emperor Xian card.

Promise cards: A player with an Attacker Promise card in front of him receives the reward on that Promise card, whether or not that player has an Attack card on his battlefield. Ignore the Defender's Promise cards.

"When the Attacker wins, you upgrade 1 territory." Execute [Upgrade Territory] once. See Upgrade Territory, page 13.
"When the Attacker wins, you may execute 1 [Diplomacy] action other than Tribute and Self-Reliance (Friendship, Induce Surrender)." Execute Friendship or Induce Surrender once. See Friendship and Induce Surrender, page 13.
"When the Attacker wins, the attack target belongs to you."
- Attack target is a player's territory: Put the cubes on the attack target territory back into that player's faction board in the empty spaces with the smallest numbers. For each cube returned, take one cube from your own board and place it on the territory spaces that originally held cubes.
- Attack target is an NPC territory: Remove the NPC tile from the game, and take cubes from your faction board to fill the spaces on that territory marked [○]. If the NPC tile's diplomacy space holds a faction cube, first return the cube to that player's board.

Attacker's extra reward - Sweep: If the attack target is a player's territory, at Resolution that player loses all territories and becomes a Wandering Army. The Attacker removes 1 cube from his faction board from the game.

Wandering Army (流浪軍): When a player's faction loses all its territories, it can still continue the game; a faction with no territories is called a "Wandering Army."

A Wandering Army cannot be designated as an attack target, and is considered adjacent to all territories.

When a Wandering Army, as the Attacker, designates an attack target, it may designate any territory.

When any player (including itself) as the Attacker designates an attack target, a Wandering Army draws 1 card from the public deck into hand because it is "adjacent" to the attack target.

6. Dispatch

Each player replenishes his hand.

If you have fewer than 4 cards in hand: Draw from your own deck into hand until you have 4 cards in hand.
If you have 4 or more cards in hand: Draw 1 card from your own deck into hand.

7. Cleanup

Each player moves all cards on his battlefield to his own discard pile.

Attention: If a card on the battlefield has a special skill whose timing is Cleanup, finish executing these skills first, then move all cards on the battlefield to the discard pile.

Check whether the end-of-game condition has been met: If one of the end-of-game conditions is met, the game ends immediately.

8. Bidding

Starting from the player to the Attacker's left and proceeding clockwise, bid in turn to be next round's Attacker.

The player to the Attacker's left can only bid 0 cards or more; he cannot pass. When it is another player's turn to bid, he must bid a higher number of cards than the current bid, or choose to pass.
Bidding lasts only 1 round, and the current round's Attacker does not take part. The player to the Attacker's right is the last bidder.
A player's highest bid cannot exceed his number of hand cards minus 1.

The highest bidder takes the Attacker marker and attack target marker from the current round's Attacker, becomes the next round's Attacker, and discards from hand a number of cards equal to his bid.

Begin the next round's game flow from 1. Declare War.

Attention: The highest bidder may transfer the Attacker marker to another player, making that player the next round's Attacker. But the highest bidder is still the one who pays the cards from hand.

Strategy tip: If a player is about to win, and the highest bidder cannot designate that player's territory as the attack target by the adjacency rule, it is a strategy worth serious consideration to transfer the Attacker marker to a player who satisfies the adjacency rule.

General Rules

Except in the Dispatch phase, a player may at any time discard 2 armament cards [yellow icon] from hand to his own discard pile, then draw 1 card from his own deck into hand.
No skill can reduce the number of cubes on a territory that already holds cubes to zero.
When a player's deck runs out, shuffle the cards in the discard pile face down and place them on the right side of the board as the new deck.

Game End

The game ends immediately if either of the following conditions is met in the Cleanup phase:

Any player's faction board holds fewer cubes than the player-count marker (marked on the cube area of the board: 4 for a 4-player game, 5 for a 5-player game, 6 for a 6-player game).
A cube of any player's faction is on a dark-colored space in the bottom row of the Emperor Xian card.

Compare the number of cubes remaining on all players' faction boards; the player with the fewest cubes wins. If multiple players are tied for the fewest cubes, they win jointly.

Strategy tip: If you are the leading player late in the game, you may attract a joint suppression by other players. In that case you can use a joint victory as a condition to draw other leading players into achieving the game-end condition together with you, which may give you a better chance of winning.

Design note: When players' cubes fill the dark spaces in the bottom row of the Emperor Xian card, it means the Han house has restored its former prestige. This is only a condition for ending the game early; the number of cubes on the Emperor Xian card does not affect the comparison of who wins.

Playing the Standard Game (Full Rules)

Once players are familiar with this game, they can play the standard game. Only adjusted and added rules are listed below; all other rules are the same as the simple rules.

Game Setup

Setting up the personal area

Decide the first round's Attacker. Randomly decide 1 starting player, who is the first round's Attacker. Place the Attacker marker and attack target marker in front of him.

Choose factions. The starting player chooses a faction; after he has chosen, the next player (clockwise) chooses in turn. Except for the starting player, when other players choose a faction, at least one territory of the faction must be adjacent on the map to the territories of factions already chosen by other players.

Set up Stance cards. Each player takes the corresponding Stance card (the faction name is on the right side of the Stance card). Except for Yuan Shu, each player places his "Han Minister" (漢臣) side face up in front of him. Yuan Shu places his "Self-Reliance" (自立) side face up in front of him.

Setting up the public area

Set up starting diplomacy. Starting from the player to the starting player's right and going counterclockwise, each player in turn takes 1 cube from his own board and places it in the diplomacy space of an NPC tile, following these rules:

An NPC tile can hold only 1 cube (it has only one diplomacy space), and a cube cannot replace another player's cube.
A cube cannot be placed on an NPC tile adjacent to your own faction (this applies only to the starting setup; the Friendship of normal rounds is not so restricted).

4-5 players: After each player has placed 1 cube, each player does it once more in the same order (2 rounds in total; each player chooses 2 NPC tiles on which to place cubes).

6 players: Each player places only 1 cube.

Strategy tip: Placing your cube on an NPC tile adjacent to other players has 2 big benefits:

As the Attacker, you can launch an attack from that NPC tile.

When an adjacent territory is designated as the attack target, you may draw 1 extra card (see Adjacency reward, page 11).

Set up Promise cards. Add the Promise card "When the Attacker wins, the extra occupied territories belong to you" to the game.

Game Flow

3. March

General skill - Diplomacy: Choose one of three becomes choose one of four. A new option "Self-Reliance" is added.

Self-Reliance (自立): If you are Yuan Shao, Lu Bu, Sun Ce or Ma Teng, and your Stance card is Han Minister, flip the Stance card to Self-Reliance. Add up the cubes on all your territories (not counting NPC tiles); for every 2 territory levels, draw 1 card from your deck into hand. Then remove your cubes on the Emperor Xian card from the game.

If you are Liu Bei, Liu Biao, Liu Zhang or Yuan Shu, you cannot declare Self-Reliance.

If you are Cao Cao, you must have 5 or more of your cubes on the Emperor Xian card to declare Self-Reliance. Doing so removes the Emperor Xian card and all players' cubes on the Emperor Xian card from the game. All players flip their Stance cards to Self-Reliance. For every 2 territory levels you have, you draw 1 card from your deck into hand; other players do not draw cards because their Stance cards flip to Self-Reliance.

Strategy tip: A player with a large number of territories can draw a large number of cards at once by declaring Self-Reliance. After Self-Reliance, the Merit card's reward is also better than that of Han Minister.

4. Reinforce

Pursuit (追擊): When the Defender is behind and the Defender, Defender's supporters and neutral players all give up playing cards, the game does not enter the Resolution phase. The Attacker, Attacker's supporters and neutral players continue to be asked whether they want to play additional cards.

Additional cards may only be Attack Troop cards (cards whose subtype is Troop). When the troop-type symbols (infantry / cavalry / navy) of a Troop card match the attack target's suited troop type, they continue to accumulate Attack strength on the strength tally table. When multiple players want to play cards, the order of playing is decided by the Attacker.

Pursuit can be carried out whether the Defender is a player or an NPC faction.

Attention: After additional playing begins, the Defender, Defender's supporters and neutral players may no longer play Defense cards.

Strategy tip: Playing additional cards gives the holder of the "Attacker Promise - extra occupied territories belong to you" a chance to occupy more territories. In addition, the number of cards on the battlefield also affects which player receives the Merit reward.

5. Resolution

Attacker Wins

Condition: the Defender's strength is behind, or the Defender "declares defeat" because of some card skill.

Merit card - Merit reward:

If you are Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Lu Bu, Sun Ce or Ma Teng and your Stance card is Han Minister: take 1 cube from your faction board and place it on the Emperor Xian card.
If you are Liu Bei, Liu Biao or Liu Zhang and your Stance card is Han Minister: take 1 cube from your faction board and place it on the Emperor Xian card. (Translator's note: this is printed as "1 cube" here, while the simple rules on page 15 say Liu Bei and Liu Biao take 2 cubes. The discrepancy is in the source and is transcribed as printed.)
If your Stance card is Self-Reliance: take 2 cubes from your faction board and remove them from the game.

Promise card: "When the Attacker wins, all extra occupied territories belong to you."

On the strength tally table, each interval (區間) separating the Attack marker from the Defense marker is called 1 point of Rout Value (潰敗值). Rout Value lets you additionally occupy the Defender's territories.

Example: Attack at 9, Defense at 4. Although the two values differ by 5, there is no "interval" between them, so it counts as 0 Rout Value.

Example: Attack at 16, Defense at 12. There is 1 interval between them, so the Rout Value is 1.

Example: Attack at (1 Attack marker at 30+, 1 Attack marker at 5) 35, Defense at 23. There are 3 intervals between them, counted as 3 Rout Value.

Attention: Rout Value is calculated by the intervals actually separating the markers on the strength tally table, not by subtracting the Attack and Defense values. When the Attack and Defense markers are in the same interval or in neighboring intervals, it counts as 0 Rout Value. When the Attack and Defense markers are not in neighboring intervals, each interval in between (containing neither the Attack nor the Defense marker) counts as "Rout Value."

Occupation target is a player's territory: Put the cubes on the territory back into that player's board in the empty spaces with the smallest numbers. For each cube returned, take one cube from your own board and place it on the territory spaces that originally held cubes.

Occupation target is an NPC territory: Remove the NPC tile from the game, and take cubes from your board to fill the spaces on that territory marked [○]. If the NPC tile's diplomacy space holds a faction cube, first return the cube to that player's board.

Rout Value (潰敗值): Rout Value lets the player holding this Promise card additionally occupy territories other than the attack target, following these rules:

The occupied territory must be of the same faction as the attack target.

The occupied territory must be adjacent to the attack target, or adjacent to a territory just occupied by paying Rout Value.

Each point of Rout Value can occupy 1 territory level. If a territory has 2 or more territory levels, all of its territory levels must be occupied at once.

After occupying 1 territory, if Rout Value remains, you may continue occupying other territories of the same faction, repeating until the remaining Rout Value is not enough to occupy another territory, or there is no adjacent territory left to occupy.

Attention: Whether NPC tiles are of the same faction is judged by whether the faction name beside the territory name is the same. A gray-bordered NPC tile means that NPC faction has only 1 territory; NPC tiles that are not gray-bordered are all of the same faction (when they share a faction name).

Example: Xiangyang has 3 territory levels but the Rout Value is only 2, so Xiangyang cannot be chosen as the target of extra occupation; only territories with territory level 2 or 1 can be chosen.

Attention: Each cube on a player faction's territory counts as 1 territory level; each [○] on an NPC tile counts as 1 territory level.

Design note: In terms of the setting, Rout Value represents the news of a shattering defeat on the battlefield reaching the rear, making other territories lose heart and defect to the enemy camp. As a mechanism, it gives players a chance to catch up on a lagging position with one big victory, or even win in one stroke.

Q&A

Q1. When my cube is on the diplomacy space of an NPC tile and I designate another tile of the same NPC faction as the attack target, will I draw from the public deck because of the Declare War phase's Adjacency reward?

No. See Collect rewards under Declare War, page 11. Your cubes on all tiles of that NPC faction are first returned to your board. When collecting the Adjacency reward, none of that NPC faction's other tiles holds your cube.

Q2. Can I choose not to count the scheme value of a card on my battlefield, so that other players can trigger certain card skills on me (for example, Estrangement)?

No. Although scheme value is not accumulated on the strength tally table like strength, it is, like strength, compulsorily counted.

Q3. When the troop-type symbols on a Troop card do not match the attack target's suited terrain, can the Troop card still be played?

Yes. Although the card's troop-type symbols are not accumulated on the strength tally table, the card is still counted among the cards on the battlefield when calculating which player receives the Merit reward.

Q4. When troop-type symbol markers need to be placed on a card but there are not enough markers, what should be done?

When troop-type symbol markers are insufficient, players may prepare other components to mark them.

Q5. When I use Lu Bu's skill "Reversal" (反覆), if the player I ask is unwilling to discard 1 card from hand, may I keep asking other players?

Yes, you may keep asking other players, but only enemies (players with a different Attack/Defense type from you; allies are not included). If no enemy is willing to discard, you cannot execute "Reversal."

Q6. When I use Lu Bu's skill "Reversal," after discarding the Lu Bu card originally on the battlefield and all other cards, and playing another Lu Bu, can I execute the effect of the Lu Bu card just played?

You can execute the effect of the Lu Bu card just played, including the [Duel] general skill and "Prestige" (威名). But if you want to execute "Reversal" once more, you will be limited by having no other Lu Bu card in hand (the other Lu Bu card is already in the discard pile), so you cannot.

Q7. How do I use Sun Ce's skill "Light Cavalry" (輕騎)?

Scenario 1: When the Attacker's strength is behind the Defender by 1 point, 2 points, or tied, the Attacker may declare giving up playing cards and enter the Resolution phase. On entering Resolution, first execute the effect of Light Cavalry, then determine whether the Attacker or Defender wins. As long as a Troop card is successfully drawn, the Attacker can win at Resolution, and since the Resolution phase has already begun, the Defender can no longer add cards.

Scenario 2: At Resolution, the Attacker's strength is behind the Defender by 3 points or more. The Sun Ce player wants to place 1 cube on the Emperor Xian card. As long as a Troop card is successfully drawn, even after adding 3 points of strength the Defender still wins at Resolution, and the effect of placing 1 cube on the Emperor Xian card can still be executed.

Q8. If a skill's timing is Ongoing, Resolution or Cleanup and I read the effect to the other players when I played the card, but when that timing arrives I change my mind and do not want to execute it, may I give up executing the effect?

Yes. Reading the card's effect aloud only previews to other players the effects that may be executed; it does not mean you must execute them.

Appendix: Wandering General List

Each entry lists the card's side (Attack or Defense), its icons as printed on the card (Inf = infantry symbol, Cav = cavalry symbol, Navy = navy symbol, Scheme = scheme value; general skills in brackets), and its skill text. "Scheme" in skill text stands for the scheme value icon. Cards are subtype General, "Wandering" faction.

Gan Ning (甘寧) - Attack. Inf x3, Navy x2, Scheme x1, [Duel]. River Pirate (江賊) - Immediate: The attack target's suited troop type is Navy. You designate 1 enemy; he places 2 cards from his hand into his discard pile, his own choice. Afterwards you draw 2 cards from the public deck into hand. Note: If the enemy you designate has only 1 card in hand, he discards until his hand is empty. You then draw only 1 public deck card into hand. If the opponent has no hand cards, you cannot designate him.

Lu Xun (陸遜) n03 - Defense (the card also bears an Attack banner). Inf x1, Navy x2, Scheme x2. Burn the Camp (燒營) - Immediate: Designate an enemy with less Scheme than you. For every 2 cards on his battlefield, he chooses 1 card from his hand and places it in his discard pile, his own choice. Example: With only 1 hand card he need not discard; with 2 or 3 hand cards he discards 1; with 4 or 5 hand cards, 2; with 6 or 7 hand cards, 3...

Wei Yan (魏延) n02 - Defense. Inf x5, [Duel]. Heavy Gate (重門) - Immediate: When the attack target's suited troop type does not include Cavalry, place 2 infantry symbol markers on this card.

Lu Su (魯肅) n04 - Defense. Inf x1, Scheme x2, [Diplomacy]. Lend Land (借地) - Immediate: Designate 1 allied player and transfer 1 of your territories to him. Remove your cubes on this territory from the game, and take the same number of cubes from his board and place them on that territory. Note: You cannot choose the territory designated as the attack target.

Zhuge Jin (諸葛謹) n05 - Defense. Inf x1, Scheme x2, [Diplomacy]. Negotiation (和談) - Resolution: When the Defender wins, you and the Attacker each remove 1 cube from your own boards. Note: It is not executed immediately, and the Attacker does not need to declare defeat. The effect is executed when the Attacker loses at Resolution.

Chen Dao (陳到) n06 - Defense. Inf x3. White Plume (白毦) - Immediate: Take 1 Infantry (Troop card) from your discard pile back into your hand; if you do so, place 2 infantry symbol markers on this card. Note: If you did not take 1 Infantry from your discard pile back into hand, you cannot place the 2 infantry symbol markers on this card.

Xu Sheng (徐盛) n07 - Defense. Inf x1, Navy x2, Scheme x1. Linked Stockades (連寨) - Ongoing: Afterwards, each time you play a card with Scheme, place 2 navy symbol markers on this "Xu Sheng" card. Note: Whether it is a "Scheme card" or a "General card" with Scheme, either can trigger the effect. Note: Whether the card has 1, 2 or more Scheme, each time you play a card with Scheme you place the same 2 navy symbol markers.

Xu Shu (徐庶) n08 - Defense. Inf x1, Scheme x2, [Talent]. (No skill text.)

Zhao Yun (趙雲) n09 - Defense. Inf x2, Cav x3, Scheme x1, [Duel]. Composure (沉著) - Ongoing: Before you play your next card, enemies who must compare Scheme for an effect cannot designate you as a target. Note: Whether it is a "Scheme card" or a "General card" with Scheme, neither can designate you as a target. Note: When you play your next card, you can no longer execute "Composure," including when the card you play is discarded by another effect.

Du Ji (杜畿) n10 - Defense. Inf x1, Scheme x2, [Upgrade Territory]. Decoy Troops (偽兵) - Immediate: Compare with the 1 player among enemies with the highest Scheme. If you have n more Scheme than he does, place n infantry symbol markers on this card.

Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) n11 - Attack. Inf x1, Scheme x3, [Diplomacy], [Upgrade Territory]. Divine Calculation (神算) - Immediate: Designate 1 enemy with less Scheme than you; he gives you his hand to look at. Choose 1 Scheme card from it to add to your hand, and return the rest to his hand. Note: You can only choose cards whose subtype is "Scheme"; this does not include "General cards" that have Scheme. Note: If the other player has no Scheme cards in hand, return all his hand cards to him.

Sima Yi (司馬懿) n12 - Defense. Inf x1, Scheme x3, [Upgrade Territory]. Wolf's Gaze (狼顧) - Immediate: Take all Scheme cards in your discard pile back into your hand. Note: You can only choose cards whose type is "Scheme"; this does not include "General cards" that have Scheme.

Pang Tong (龐統) n13 - Attack. Inf x1, Scheme x3, [Upgrade Territory]. Planning (籌謀) - Immediate: Choose any number of cards from your hand and place them in your discard pile, then draw the same number of cards from your deck into your hand. Note: If your deck does not have enough cards, add all of your deck to your hand, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck, and draw the remaining number from the new deck.

Shamoke (沙摩柯) n14 - Attack. Inf x3. Clearing the Wilds (開荒) - Immediate: When the attack target's suited troop type does not include Cavalry, place 3 infantry symbol markers on this card.

Appendix: Armament Card List

Troop cards have no skill text. "Scheme" in skill text stands for the scheme value icon. Subtype of the cards below the troop cards is Scheme (計略). The list is transcribed with card numbers as printed.

Infantry (步兵) - Attack. Troop. Inf x2. g101 - g112. Navy (水軍) - Attack. Troop. Navy x3. g125 - g136. Cavalry (騎兵) - Attack. Troop. Cav x3. g113 - g124. Infantry (步兵) - Defense. Troop. Inf x2. g137 - g142. Cavalry (騎兵) - Defense. Troop. Cav x3. g143 - g148. Navy (水軍) - Defense. Troop. Navy x3. g149 - g154.

Breach the Dike (決水) - Attack. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x2. g201 - g202. Breach the Dike - Immediate: The territory designated as the attack target is suited to Navy. For each enemy with less Scheme than you, you choose separately 1 card on his battlefield and place it in his discard pile, but you cannot choose a card with Navy. Note: If the opponent's battlefield has only cards with Navy, this skill has no effect on him (it is still effective on other enemies). Note: If the territory designated as the attack target is not suited to Navy, you cannot execute this skill.

Fire Attack (火攻) - Attack. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x2. g203 - g204. Fire Attack - Immediate: For each enemy with less Scheme than you, you randomly draw 1 card from his hand and place it in his discard pile.

Secret Path (蹊徑) - Attack. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x2. g205 - g206. Secret Path - Immediate: Compare with the enemy who has the most Scheme; if your Scheme is more than his, draw 1 card from the public deck into your hand. If your cubes are not connected by a route to the attack target, draw 1 more card from the public deck into your hand. Note: If your Scheme is not more than the enemy's, you will not draw 1 extra public deck card even if your cubes are not adjacent to the attack target. Note: Territories with your cubes, and NPC tiles with your cube on the diplomacy space, all count as your cubes.

Decoy Troops (偽兵) - Defense. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x1. g207 - g208. Decoy Troops - Immediate: Compare with the 1 player among enemies with the highest Scheme. If you have n more Scheme than he does, place n infantry symbol markers on this card.

Estrangement (離間) - Defense. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x1. g209 - g210. Estrangement - Immediate: Designate 1 Attacker's supporter with less Scheme than you; you choose 1 card on his battlefield and place it in his discard pile. If after discarding there is no card on his battlefield, place this card on his battlefield. As long as this card remains on his battlefield, he can only play Defense cards. Note: If you place this card on the opponent's battlefield, it afterwards becomes his card.

False Report (偽報) - Defense. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x1. g211 - g212. False Report - Immediate: Designate 1 enemy with less Scheme than you and discard 1 card on his battlefield; you designate which 1 card he must discard.

Chain Strategy (連環) - Attack. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x2. g213 - g216. Chain Strategy - Immediate: Compare with the enemy who has the most Scheme; if your Scheme is more than his, place 1 navy symbol marker on each card on your battlefield. Note: This "Chain Strategy" card also gets a navy symbol marker.

Wondrous Calculation (妙算) - Attack. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x2. g217 - g218. Wondrous Calculation - Immediate: Randomly draw 2 hand cards of 1 enemy with less Scheme than you; discard the Attack card among them, and return the Defense card to his hand. Note: If the enemy has only 1 hand card, this effect can still be executed on him; draw until the hand is exhausted.

Lure the Enemy (誘敵) - Attack. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x2. g219 - g220. Lure the Enemy - Immediate: Designate 1 enemy with less Scheme than you; he chooses one of the following actions to execute:

He chooses 1 Defense card from his hand and places it in his discard pile.
He chooses 1 card from his battlefield and places it in his discard pile.

Burn the Provisions (燒糧) - Defense. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x1. g221 - g222. Burn the Provisions - Immediate: Designate 1 enemy with less Scheme than you; for every 2 cards in his hand he chooses 1 hand card and places it in his discard pile, his own choice. Example: With only 1 hand card he need not discard; with 2 or 3 hand cards he discards 1; with 4 or 5 hand cards, 2; with 6 or 7 hand cards, 3...

Disruption (擾亂) - Defense. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x1. g223 - g224. Disruption - Immediate: Designate 1 player with less Scheme than you. He discards all his hand cards and then draws the same number of cards from his deck into hand. Note: If his deck does not have enough cards, add all of his deck to his hand, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck, and draw the remaining number from the new deck.

Prepare for Battle (備戰) - Defense. Scheme. Inf x1, Scheme x1. g224 - g226 (as printed). Prepare for Battle - Immediate: Compare with the 1 enemy with the highest Scheme; if your Scheme is more than his, you draw 1 card from your deck into hand. Note: No matter how many more Scheme you have than the opponent, you draw only 1 card from your deck into hand.