World Order: Diplomacy & Dominance Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Automas (Solo Mode)
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • Preparation Phase
  • Action Phase
    • Improve Relations
    • Engage
    • Trade
    • Invest
    • Move
    • Build a Base
    • Get a Growth Card
    • Research Step
  • Aftermath
    • Return on Investments
    • Increase Prosperity
    • Resolve THREAT
  • Important Notes
    • Adding Influence
    • Moving to a New Round
    • Playing Cards From the Market
    • Deciding at Random
    • Trading with an Automa
    • Decision & Auto-Influence Decks Running Out
    • Combining Automas With Executive Orders
• Superpower Objectives
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
• Growth Cards
• Ability Cards
• Strategic Asset Cards

Components

Symbols in this rulebook are written as words: the Ordis coin as "Ordis", the Research symbol as "Research", the red tank as "Army", and the green sprout as "Diplomacy".

• 1 Automa Game Board
• 12 Automa Decision Cards
• 4 Automa Player Cards
• 2 Automa Priority Cards
• 1 Automa Player Aid
• 32 Superpower Objectives Cards (8 for each player)
• 12 Strategic Asset Cards (3 for each player)
• 8 Market Ability Cards
• 20 Growth Cards

Automa Board: Focus Spaces (Domestic Focus, Diplomatic Focus, Military Focus) and Action Spaces (Engage, Improve Relations, Invest, Trade, Build a Base, Move).

Automa Decision Cards: Each card shows the Automa Player Indicator, the Focus Indicator, the Trade Indicator, the Influence Slot Indicator, and a Randomizer. The Randomizer has 2 options (A/B) in the bottom-left corner, or 3 options (I/II/III) in the bottom-right corner.

Automa Player Cards: Starting Money, Market Priority, Action Cubes Priority, Prosperity Track, and Prosperity Requirements.

Automas (Solo Mode)

This expansion provides the rules for automated players (called Automas from now on) to take part in the game in place of human players. This allows for you to play World Order solo (against 1–3 Automas) or use the Automas in multiplayer games as substitutes for missing players.

When running an Automa, there are 2 difficulty modes you can choose from: Normal and Hard. The rules below describe the Normal Mode, with any changes in Hard Mode shown in a separate box marked accordingly where relevant.

Setup

1. For each Automa, place its Player card on the table.
2. Shuffle each Automa's starting deck of Ability cards and place it face down next to its Player card. Also, place next to its Player card: its Starting Country cards, its starting money as listed on its Player card, its Prosperity marker, and a pile of its Army tokens and Influence cubes for easy access when needed.
3. Place each Automa's Scoring marker on the 10 VPs spot on the Main board.
4. Place the Automa board somewhere nearby within easy reach. Place a Production cube from each Automa in the following Action spaces on the board: Improve Relations, Invest, and Build a Base. Place each Automa's Focus marker on the Domestic Focus space.
5. Place an additional Production cube from each Automa on the Round track, on spaces 2, 4, and 6.

HARD MODE: Place a Production cube from each Automa on space 5 as well.

6. Shuffle the Decision deck and the Auto-Influence deck and place them near the Automa board.
7. Determine the turn order as usual, with the player with the most VPs playing first. Since all the Automas start tied at 10 VPs, the one with the least starting money will go first, and the others will follow accordingly.

You are now ready to start playing.

Gameplay

An Automa plays like a human player would, with some important differences: It doesn't keep track of resources, so it doesn't use a Player board. Whenever it needs to spend resources, it spends money instead, and whenever it would gain resources, it gains money instead. The only exception to this is Army tokens. It is assumed that the Automa always has as many Army tokens as it needs available, and it does not pay anything to produce them.

An Automa keeps and makes use of allied Countries, but it never exhausts them. However, it is important to keep track of the number of allied Countries it has in each Region, how many of them allow for a Military Base, and the number of Export symbols on their cards. We suggest that you keep Countries from the same Region together in a column, overlapping in such a way that the Export and Military Base symbols remain visible.

Preparation Phase

Draw Cards: An Automa does not draw any cards in this phase and does not keep a hand.

Turn Order: When determining turn order, an Automa will always choose to take the right-most available slot.

Choosing Focus & Producing Resources: To determine an Automa's Focus, draw a Decision card and look at the row corresponding to it. When there is more than one Automa in a game, draw a separate card for each one.

An Automa does not produce or keep track of any resources. Instead, depending on the Focus it chose, it will receive a different amount of money.

• Domestic Focus: the current round × 10 Ordis
• Diplomatic Focus: the current round × 5 Ordis
• Military Focus: the current round × 3 Ordis

For example, if an Automa chooses Diplomatic Focus in round 4, it will gain 4 × 5 = 20 Ordis.

There are also some additional bonuses that an Automa gets depending on its Focus.

• Domestic Focus: +2 Research during the Research step.
• Diplomatic Focus: Engage costs 5 Ordis less, and when an Automa chooses Diplomatic Focus, it immediately Improves Relations with a Country on the board, outside its zone of interest. (Choose the Country as you would normally do when Improving Relations, ignoring Auto-Influence cards showing Regions in its zone of interest.)
• Military Focus: +1 THREAT wherever it has Armies and +1 Defense in its zone of interest.

Action Phase

Each Automa uses its Starting Ability cards to determine the actions it will perform, but does not apply the effects written on them. Instead, it looks only at a card's type (its color/symbol) and then consults the Automa board to determine the action it will play. More specifically:

At the beginning of an Automa's turn, draw a card from its deck and note the card's type:

• Diplomatic, Economic, or Military: Look at the row on the Automa board that corresponds to the action type listed on the Ability card. If there are any cubes from the acting Automa in the left space, it performs that action and moves 1 of its cubes there to the right space. If there are no cubes from the acting Automa in the left space, it performs the action on the right space and moves all of its cubes there to the left space. If the action cannot be performed due to a lack of money, the Automa performs a Trade action instead, moving all of its cubes (if any) in the Trade space to the Invest space on the left.
• Domestic: The Automa Gets a Growth Card if it can afford one. If it can't, it gains 30 Ordis instead.

Each action is performed as described in the main game's rules. See the following sections for details on how the Automa's decisions in each case are determined:

Improve Relations

To choose the Country an Automa will Improve Relations with, draw an Auto-Influence card to determine the Region. Then, use the criteria below to determine which Country from that Region it will get. Start with the first point and continue down the list until you find one that applies. If more than one option is available, use the next points, one by one, to narrow down the options until a Country is selected:

• One of the Automa's Starting Countries.
• A Country in which it can Build a Base.
• The Country with the highest Value it can afford.
• The Country card on the left.

For each Diplomacy required, the Automa will instead spend 5 Ordis. Note that the Automa does not gain a discount when Improving Relations due to already having allied Countries from the same Region.

If the Automa has less than 15 Ordis, it will check the criteria considering only Countries it can afford, drawing a new Auto-Influence card if needed. If it can't afford any of the available Countries on the board, it will perform a Trade action instead of Improve Relations. In either case, be sure to move the Automa's cube(s) only for the action actually performed on the Automa board.

If the Automa Improves Relations with one of its Starting Countries, return the Starting Country back to the box and keep only the new Country card. Then add an Influence cube to the Region as normal.

If the Automa Improves Relations due to choosing Diplomatic Focus in the Preparation phase, perform the action as normal, but do not move any cubes on the Automa board.

Engage

To choose the Region an Automa will Engage in, draw an Auto-Influence card. If the Automa has no allied Countries in that Region, draw a new Auto-Influence card.

For each Diplomacy required, the Automa will instead spend 5 Ordis. The total cost is reduced by 5 Ordis for each allied Country the Automa has from that Region (regardless of its value). It is also reduced by an additional 5 Ordis if the Automa has Diplomatic Focus.

If the Automa can't afford the cost, it draws a new Auto-Influence card. If it can't afford to pay the cost to Engage in any Region, it will perform a Trade action instead. In either case, be sure to move the Automa's cube(s) only for the action actually performed on the Automa board.

Note that an Automa never places any Engage tokens on the Main board.

Trade

Whenever an Automa Trades, it gains 5 Ordis per Export symbol at the bottom of its allied Country cards. Then, draw a Decision card. If any other player is listed in the row corresponding to the Automa (whether a human player or another Automa), it also Trades with them in the following way: Give that player 10 Ordis from the supply and give another 5 Ordis from the supply to the Automa. If the recipient is an actual player, they turn over one of their Commerce cards as usual. However, if all of the player's Commerce cards are already flipped, then the Trade between them does not happen.

Invest

To choose where an Automa will Invest, draw an Auto-Influence card to determine the Region. If the Automa has no allied Countries in that Region or cannot Invest any more in that Region (see below) draw a new Auto-Influence card.

The Automa does not Invest in a specific Country. It always pays a cost of 15 Ordis and places an FDI token beneath its column of allied Countries from that Region. It can have as many FDI tokens per Region as 1 + the number of allied Countries it has from that Region. If it ever ends up having more FDI tokens in a Region than allied Countries, it can't Invest in that Region and will need to draw a new Auto-Influence card instead.

If an Automa ever reaches a point where it has already Invested in all of the Regions the maximum number of times allowed, it will perform the Improve Relations action instead. However, if it can't Invest due to not having enough money, it will Trade instead. In all cases, be sure to move the Automa's cube(s) only for the action actually performed on the Automa board.

Move

Whenever an Automa performs the Move action, it will always move 1 Army from the supply to the Main board, paying its cost (5 Ordis) as normal. To determine where it will place that Army, use the criteria below.

Start with the first point and continue down the list until you find one that applies. If multiple options are available for a given point, choose randomly between them:

• A Region in its zone of interest in which it is currently under threat. If this applies to multiple Regions, choose the one where the difference between THREAT and Defense is the smallest.
• A Region in its zone of interest where it will put at least one other player under threat (that currently isn't). If this applies to multiple Regions, choose the one where another player has more Army than the Automa. If no such Region exists, choose the one where the most players will be put under threat (that currently aren't).
• A Region outside its zone of interest, if able, where the most players will be put under threat.
• A Region at random where it is able to Move.

Note that you are considered to be "under threat" in a Region in your zone of interest when another player has more THREAT there than you have Defense.

If an Automa has less than 5 Ordis, making it unable to afford to Move, it will Trade instead. In either case, be sure to move the Automa's cube(s) only for the action actually performed on the Automa board.

Build a Base

To determine the Region where an Automa will Build a Base, use the criteria below.

Start with the first point and continue down the list until you find one that applies. If the Automa has no allied Countries in a Region that allow a Military Base to be built on them, or it can't Build a Base any more in that Region (see below), do not take that Region into consideration when assessing each point. If multiple options are available for a given point, choose randomly between them:

• A Region in its zone of interest in which it is currently under threat. If this applies to multiple Regions, choose the one where the difference between THREAT and Defense is the smallest.
• A Region in its zone of interest where it will put at least one other player under threat (that currently isn't). If this applies to multiple Regions, choose the one where another player has more Army than the Automa. If no such Region exists, choose the one where the most players will be put under threat (that currently aren't).
• A Region outside its zone of interest, if able, where the most players will be put under threat.
• A Region at random where it is able to Build a Base.

Note that you are considered to be "under threat" in a Region in your zone of interest when another player has more THREAT there than you have Defense.

The Automa does not Build a Base in a specific Country. It moves a single Army from the supply to that Region, pays a total cost of 10 Ordis, and places a Military Base token beneath its column of allied Countries for that Region. It can have a number of Bases in a given Region equal to 1 + the number of allied Countries it has from that Region that allow the Automa to Build a Base in them. If it ever ends up having more Bases in a Region than allied Countries, it can't Build a Base in that Region and will have to choose a different one.

HARD MODE: After determining the Region, draw an Auto-Influence card. If the card features an Army symbol on the row corresponding to the Automa, it will Move 1 additional Army to the Region, (spending 5 Ordis for it as normal).

If an Automa ever reaches a point where it is unable to Build a Base in any Region (due to already having the maximum number of Military Base tokens allowed in each of them), it will Improve Relations instead. However, instead of choosing the Region by drawing an Auto-Influence card, look at the Countries on the Main board and choose one that allows the Automa to Build a Base on it at random.

If the Automa is unable to Build a Base in a Region due to not having enough money, or is unable to Improve Relations due to no available Country allowing it to Build a Base in it, it will Trade instead. In all cases, be sure to move the Automa's cube(s) only for the action actually performed on the Automa board.

Get a Growth Card

Before an Automa gets a Growth card, look at the available Growth cards of the appropriate Level and convert their cost to money:

• Diplomacy: 5 Ordis each
• Services, Consumer Goods, Army: 10 Ordis each
• Energy, Raw Materials, Food: 3 Ordis each
• Any other symbols: 15 Ordis each

If the Automa is able to afford either card, it will choose one at random. If it can only cover the cost of one card, it will get that one. If it is unable to afford any Growth card of the appropriate Level, it gains 30 Ordis instead.

When an Automa gets a Growth card, it doesn't gain any abilities, only VPs. Specifically, it gains the card's listed VPs as well as VPs equal to the card's Level (1 for Level 1, 2 for Level 2, and so on).

For example, if an Automa gets the Tactical Flexibility Growth card, it will get 6 + 3 = 9 VPs in total.

Research Step

On its turn during the Research step, reveal 2 cards from the Automa's own deck and give it the Ordis and Research listed in the cards' Bonus sections. If any other symbol is shown, use the values listed in the Get a Growth Card action above to determine how many to give to the Automa.

At the end of the 2nd and 4th rounds, the 2 cards drawn in an Automa's Research step should be the last 2 cards in its deck. (See Playing Cards From the Market on page 14 for details on this). When that happens, immediately shuffle its 12 cards and form its deck again (before getting a new card).

Then, the Automa gets to spend Research to get a new card from the Market. Apart from the Research it gained from the 2 drawn cards, the Automa gains 1 more Research for every 3 allied Countries it has, and if the Automa has Domestic Focus, it also gains 2 more Research.

The Automa will always get the card from the Market with the highest cost it is able to afford. If tied between 2 or more cards with the same cost, consult the Market Priority on its Player card to see which type of card it will prioritize (Diplomatic, Economic, Military, or Domestic). If there is still a tie, it takes the tied card most recently added to the Market (in other words, the one closest to the Ability deck).

If the Automa has any Research left after it gets its card, it won't get any additional cards. Instead, for each remaining Research, it will discard 1 card from the end of the Market row.

The card the Automa gets goes on top of its deck. This means that it will be the first card it will draw next round. See Playing Cards From the Market on page 14 for details on how the Automa will handle it.

Aftermath

Return on Investments

An Automa gets 5 Ordis for each FDI token it has.

Increase Prosperity

An Automa's Player card has its Prosperity track, with each space listing directly above it the money required to advance to it. If the Automa has the money listed above the next available space, it spends that amount and moves its marker to that space, gaining the corresponding VP.

Resolve THREAT

An Automa receives and applies THREAT as an actual player would. Adjust the players' Scoring markers accordingly.

Important Notes

Adding Influence

Whenever an Automa adds Influence to a Region, if there is only one type of slot available (permanent or temporary), place the Influence cube there. If both permanent and temporary slots are available, draw a Decision card and look at the INFLUENCE section corresponding to the current round. If the top square is black, place the Influence cube in a permanent slot. If the bottom square is black, place it in the left-most temporary slot.

An Automa will never add temporary Influence to a Region if, by doing so, it will push one of its own Influence out. If that ever occurs, the Automa will choose a different Region to perform the same action. (Either draw a new Auto-Influence card or recheck the criteria ignoring that Region.)

HARD MODE: If an Automa, by adding temporary Influence, would end up pushing one of its own Influence out of a Region, it adds a permanent Influence instead, even if there is no available slot.

Moving to a New Round

During setup, Production cubes from each Automa are placed on some of the Round track spaces. When moving to a new round, if there are any Production cubes on its space, remove them and place them on the Automa board. For each Automa, consult the Action Cube Priority list on its Player card to determine on which Action space its cube should be placed. The first cube should be placed on the first Action space listed, the second one on the second Action space, and the third one on the third.

HARD MODE: The fourth Production cube is also placed in the first Action space listed in the Action Cube Priority list.

Playing Cards From the Market

At the beginning of every round after the first, the top card in an Automa's deck should be the card that it got from the Market in the previous round. If the card features more than one type symbol, then the Automa performs the action that corresponds to the type featuring a small cube symbol. If none of them do, choose one of the types at random and perform the corresponding action.

HARD MODE: When a card from the Market features more than one type symbol, an Automa gets to perform that many actions, one corresponding to each symbol.

After the action from the Market card has been performed, Trash that card instead of discarding it. Then, draw the next card from the deck and perform the corresponding action as normal. Effectively, every time an Automa gets a new card from the Market, it will play an additional card on its first turn next round. And since the card is always trashed immediately after it is used, the Automa's deck will continue having 12 cards, with 6 of them being used every round.

Deciding at Random

Whenever a decision needs to be made by an Automa that is not covered by the rules or the provided priorities, choose randomly in the following way: If the decision is between 2 options, assign values A and B to those 2 options. If it's between 3 options assign values I, II, and III to them. In the rare case there are more options, divide them into two groups and repeat this process for each group. Then, draw a Decision card and consult the corresponding corner: bottom-left for 2 options (the letter within the star) and bottom-right for 3 options (the Roman numeral within a circle).

Trading with an Automa

A player may always Trade with an Automa, the same way they would Trade with an actual player. You can assume that an Automa always has the resources you want to Import from it according to your Trade Deals card. Give the Automa the cost of the resource(s) you are importing and gain 1 Diplomacy for importing from another player as normal.

Decision & Auto-Influence Decks Running Out

Whenever you need to draw a card from the Decision deck or the Auto-Influence deck, but there are no cards left in it, shuffle its used cards and form a new deck to draw from.

Combining Automas With Executive Orders

When using the Executive Orders module while playing with Automas, do not give them any Executive Order cards. Instead, they start the game with 3 additional VPs.

Superpower Objectives

This module adds objectives to the game, allowing each player to focus on specific tasks and gain additional VPs in the process. It consists of 32 Objective cards, 8 for each power.

Setup

Each player takes the Objective cards that correspond to their power and shuffles them. During the main game's setup, while you are choosing which Strategic Asset cards to keep, draw 3 Objective cards and keep 2 of them. Return the third one, along with the remaining Objective cards, back to the box, since they won't be needed. Note that, since you choose the cards at the same time, you can take into consideration the Strategic Asset cards you will keep when deciding on the Objective cards to keep and vice versa.

Gameplay

Each Objective card lists 3 tasks on it. During the first Scoring step (at the end of the 3rd round), after you have scored Regions and Majority tokens, each player must choose 1 of their 2 Objective cards and score it. The other card will be scored in the second Scoring step, at the end of the game.

To score an Objective card, count how many of the listed tasks you have achieved. Then, depending on whether you achieved 1, 2, or 3 of the card's tasks, gain the VPs listed in the Reward section.

In many tasks you may see numbers and/or symbols with a vertical line between them. In all such cases, whatever is left of the vertical line applies if the task is checked in the first Scoring step, while the part that is on the right of the vertical line applies if the task is checked at the final Scoring step. So, for example, when checking the task Have at least 8 | 12 allied Countries, if it's the first Scoring step, the task is considered achieved if you have 8 allied Countries. If it's the final Scoring step, for the task to be considered achieved, there need to be 12 allied Countries.

Some of the tasks use the word most, like in Have the most Influence in Europe, for example. In such cases, if you are tied with another player, the task is considered to be achieved. Note that this is different from have more, which is used in some other tasks. For example, when checking the task Have more Influence than Russia in Europe, you need to actually have more Influence there. In case of a tie in Influence with Russia, the task is not considered achieved.

EXAMPLE: It's the first Scoring step, and Alex (USA) needs to choose one of his Objective cards to score. He decides to go with Western Hegemony, and he checks the tasks one by one:

The first one asks him to have more Influence in Americas than each other player. Both he and Anna (EU) have 2 Influence there. Unfortunately, this means he doesn't have more, so the task is not considered achieved.

The next task asks him to have the most Influence in Europe. Both he and Jim (Russia) have 3 Influence there, while Anna has only 2. This counts as having the most, so this task is considered achieved.

Finally, the third task asks him to have at least 3 Influence in East Asia–Pacific. He does have 3 Influence there, so that task is also achieved.

Alex has achieved a total of 2 tasks. Looking at the card's Reward section, he sees that this corresponds to 4 VPs, which he then gains.

When playing with Automas, do not give them Objective cards during setup. Instead, in each Scoring step, draw 2 Objective cards for each Automa, check both for any tasks it has achieved, and give it the corresponding VPs. Then, discard the 2 cards. Note that any task that asks for something that an Automa cannot complete due to the differences in its rules (like having resources on its board, increased Productions, a specific number of cards in its deck, or Engage tokens on the board) is automatically considered to be achieved.

Growth Cards

Diplomacy & Dominance contains two additional sets of Growth cards. You can use these in your games instead of the ones included in the main game, or you can mix them in one of the following ways:

• Option 1: There are cards corresponding to 4 different abilities per Level. For each Level, choose 2 abilities at random, and add all required copies of those cards, following the main game's rules.
• Option 2: Shuffle all the Growth cards of each level together and reveal as many as the number of players. Reveal 2 additional cards for the first level and only 2 cards (in total) for Level 5. This means that, depending on the player count, there may be only 1 type of Growth card available in some levels or up to 4 different ones.

Some important notes:

• Change of Leadership: The discard symbol, featured in this card's cost, means you need to discard a card from your hand.
• Resource Efficiency: When discarding a card featuring multiple type symbols, gain the corresponding resource(s) for each such symbol on the card. However, in the case of Re-Evaluate Strategy (a card from the main game featuring all 3 symbols), you choose only 2 of the types when discarding the card and gain the corresponding resources.

Ability Cards

There are 4 additional Ability cards included in Diplomacy & Dominance, each with 2 copies. To use them in your games, just shuffle them with the rest of the Market Ability cards. Note that these new cards are a bit more interactive compared to the ones in the main game. Make sure that everyone agrees to including them in your game before you start playing.

Due to their interactive nature, these cards are not compatible with solo play. Please leave them out of the game when using the Automas.

Strategic Asset Cards

Diplomacy & Dominance includes 12 additional Strategic Asset cards, 3 for each power. To use them, just shuffle them with each power's Strategic Asset cards from the main game prior to drawing them during setup.

Ability, Strategic Asset, and Growth cards in Diplomacy & Dominance feature the globe symbol to distinguish them from the main game's cards.