Zhanguo: The First Empire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview and Goal of the Game
Components
Setup
- General setup for 2-4 players
- Player setup
How to Play
Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers
End of the Game
Solo Mode
Appendix 1 — Cards Abilities
Appendix 2 — Wall Tiles
Appendix 3 — Governor & Palace tiles
Appendix 4 — Starting tiles
Appendix 5 — Unification boards
Credits

Overview and Goal of the Game

In each of the five rounds of the game, you'll have to go along with the Emperor's plans by hiring workers to build magnificent Palaces and contribute to the realization of the Great Wall. You will install Governors, with the support of Officers, in the various regions to consolidate control. You will send a ship in search of the elixir of long life so desired by the Emperor. With this, you will earn a place for your family's insignia in the immense Terracotta Army that is destined to watch over the Emperor's Mausoleum for eternity. To help you in this challenging task, 6 cards will be at your disposal every round. These cards represent the will of unification from the Emperor in the form of currency, writings, and laws. They will give you permanent support during the rest of the game or you can play them directly to the Emperor's Court to obtain approval for your actions.

When you are in the presence of the Emperor at his Court, you will have to know how to approach or move away appropriately, because only at the right distance can you obtain the emperor's approval.

At the end of the game, the player who made the greatest contribution to the Emperor's cause by scoring the most Victory Points will win.

Components

Boards

1 Game board (double sided)
1 Court board
4 Player boards

Cards

120 Unification cards (Laws x40, Currency x40, Writing x40)
20 Alchemist cards
5 Master Alchemist cards
5 Alchemist cards for each player
30 Solo cards (4 Li Si cards, 2 double sided scoring cards, 24 Action cards)

Tiles & tokens

44 Worker tokens
6 Emperor tiles
3 large Unification tokens of value 2 (Writing x1, Currency x1, Laws x1)
39 Unification tokens of value 1 (Writing x13, Currency x13, Laws x13)
1 Unification tile (double sided)
12 Governor tiles (including 2 blanks with no bonus on them, for 2-player and 4-player games)
7 Wall tiles (double sided)
15 Palace tiles
10 Starting tiles
4 tokens 40/80 VP
9 Mausoleum tokens (Region x5, Wall x3, Elixir x1, for Advanced mode)
9 Mausoleum tiles (Region x5, Elixir x1, Wall x3)
48 Officials (Alchemist x16, Architect x16, General x16)
4 player aids (English, French)

Wooden pieces

1 Round marker
24 Walls (6 of each player color)
36 Terracotta Soldiers (9 of each player color)
4 Score markers (1 of each player color)
28 Governors (7 of each player color)
24 Palaces (6 of each player color)
20 Unrest markers
4 Ships (1 of each player color)
4 Turn Order markers (1 of each player color)

Other

2 rulebooks (English, French)
1 scorepad

Setup

General setup for 2-4 players

1A. Place the game board in the middle of the table, on the side that corresponds to the number of players, as indicated at the bottom right of the board.

1B. Place the Court board next to the game board.

1C. You may choose to play with the Unification tableau printed on the gameboard or with the double-sided Unification tile. In this case, place the Unification tile on the printed Unification tableau, on any side.

Place the Round marker on the 1st space of the Round track.
Sort the 9 Mausoleum tiles by icon (Elixir, Wall, Region) and randomly place them on their corresponding spaces on the game board (a Region tile on a Region space, etc.). Return the 9 Mausoleum tokens to the box: they are used for the advanced game only.
- ADVANCED MODE: Before placing the 9 Mausoleum tiles, randomly place the 9 Mausoleum tokens on the top left of each Mausoleum spot (therefore covering the 9 printed symbols), then place the 9 Mausoleum tiles accordingly (a Region Mausoleum tile on a Region spot, etc.).

4A. Shuffle the 7 Wall tiles, and place one on each of the 6 Wall spaces on the gameboard, on a random side. Return the unused tile to the box.

TIP: In a 3-player game, you may use the Walls of the unused color to fill the positions marked with a "4": these positions cannot be built during the game.

4B. Shuffle the 6 Emperor tiles, then:

In a 4-player game, place them according to their backside on the corresponding Wall sections, one tile per section. Then, turn the tiles face up.
In a 3-player game, discard 1 tile at random before placing them according to their backside on the corresponding Wall sections, so 5 tiles are used. The unused tile is returned to the box. Place one tile in each section, then, turn the tiles face up.
In a 2-player game, discard 2 tiles at random before placing them according to their backside on the corresponding Wall sections, so 4 tiles are used. The unused tiles are returned to the box. Place one tile in each section, then, turn the tiles face up.

Shuffle the 15 Palace tiles, then randomly place one face up on each Palace space in each region (in a 3-player game, do not place any Palace tile on spaces marked with a "4"). Return the unused Palace tiles to the box.
In a 4-player game, shuffle the 2 blank Governor tiles with 8 Governor tiles with bonuses (remaining Governor tiles are returned to the box) and place 2 at random in each Region, face up.
- In a 3-player game, remove the 2 blank Governor tiles from the game. Then, draw at random 5 Governor tiles with bonuses and place 1 at random in each Region, face up. Do not place any Governor tile on spaces marked with a "4". Remaining Governor tiles are returned to the box.
- In a 2-player game, shuffle the 2 Governor blank tiles with 3 Governor tiles with bonuses (remaining Governor tiles are returned to the box) and place 1 at random in each Region, face up.
Place a number of Master Alchemist cards equal to the number of players next to the game board. Return the remaining cards to the box.

8A. Sort the 120 Unification cards by type (Writing, Currency and Laws, 40 of each). Shuffle them separately and place them face down next to the main board.

8B. Take 9/11/13 Writing, Currency and Laws (in 2/3/4 player-games respectively) and place them next to the main board. In 2- and 3-player games, return the unused Unification tokens to the box.

8C. Place the 3 large Unification tokens on their matching spot on the game board, in the Unification area.

Place one 40/80 VP token per player at the end of the score track.
Place all the Worker tokens next to the main board.

IMPORTANT: Workers are the only component that is not supposed to be limited. If you run out of Workers, use a suitable replacement.

Player setup

Each player places their player board in front of them.
Each player chooses a color (Blue, Yellow, Red, or Purple), takes the following components in the chosen color and places them on the corresponding spaces of their player board:
- 7 Governors, 6 Palaces, 6 Walls, 8 Terracotta Soldiers. Each player's 9th Terracotta Soldier is placed at the entrance of the Mausoleum, on the main board: it is considered "unlocked".
- 4 Officials of each type (Alchemist, Architect, General) on their corresponding spaces. The bottom of each Official tile indicates whose player it belongs to.
- 1 set of 5 Alchemist cards (the player symbol is indicated on the bottom left), that goes to the personal supply of the player, face down. Then, each player takes 5 Unrest markers and places them on the 0 space of the Unrest track of each Region.
Each player places their Ship on the starting position of the Elixir route, and their Score marker on the "0" space of the Victory Points (VPs) track.
Randomly determine the 1st player, then place their Turn Order marker on the 1st space of the Turn Order track in the Unification area, at the bottom left of the main board. Then, going clockwise from the 1st player, place other players' Turn Order markers on next available space.
Deal 2 Starting tiles to each player. They simultaneously choose one and get what is depicted on it. Then, each player returns both tiles to the box. See Appendix 4 for an explanation of all Starting tiles bonuses.

Note: all the components the players have in front of them, as well as the back of their cards in hand, must always be visible to the other players.

How to Play

A game of Zhanguo lasts 5 rounds, each of them being divided into 3 phases, as indicated on the Court board:

Phase 1 - Draw Cards: players draw 2 cards from each deck (Writing, Currency and Laws).
Phase 2 - Play Cards: players play their turn by playing one card from their hand.
Phase 3 - Unification Rewards: the player who contributed the most in each of the 3 aspects of the Unification (Writing, Currency and Laws) gets a reward.

Phase 1 - Draw Cards

At the beginning of each round, each player draws 2 cards from each deck (Writing, Currency and Laws), for a total of 6 cards, and adds them to their hand.

Card anatomy

Front: Each card has an ability related to the 6 Court Actions and represents one of the 3 aspects of the Unification: Writing, Currency and Laws. It also has a unique activation number from 1 to 120. See Appendix 1 for an explanation of cards abilities.

Back: The color and the symbol match the card's unification aspect on the front. Numbers on the bottom indicate the card's range: Writing cards are numbered 1-40, Currency cards are numbered 41-80 and Laws cards are numbered 81-120.

IMPORTANT: When asked, players must always show their opponents the back of their cards in hand.

Phase 2 - Play Cards

Starting with the 1st player, and following the Turn Order, each player plays in turn exactly 1 card from their hand and performs 1 action. Proceed until all players have played their cards. Then the Phase 2 - Play Cards ends.

How to play a card

When it is their turn, the player must play 1 card from their hand and either:

Perform the Unification Action (A): they place the card into one of the 5 regions of their player board.

OR
Perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions (B): they place the card in the Emperor area, on the Court board. Cards played that way are placed face-up one on top of the other, forming a pile.

A. Unification Action

Resolve these steps in order:

The player plays one card from their hand in a region of their choice on their player board.
They tuck it face-up underneath the top edge of their board (or previously placed cards), so that only the top of the card is showing (with its ability and its trigger).
They gain 1/2/3 Unification tokens in the color of the card they just placed, based on whether it was the 1st/2nd/3rd card in that region.

IMPORTANT:

Each region on the player board can host up to 3 cards. After the player has placed the 3rd card in a region, they cannot place anymore cards there.
Once placed, cards cannot be moved or removed for the remainder of the game.
If there are not enough Unification tokens of the appropriate color in the general supply, the player takes the maximum they can (this may be 0).

Cards played using the Unification Action (A) improve the player's Court Actions (B). During Phase 3 - Unification Rewards of each round, the player who has contributed the most to the Unification in each of the 3 aspects (i.e. the one with the most Unification tokens in that color) will be rewarded with a bonus if they spend all their tokens from the said color.

Unification action and Unrest

When a player performs the Unification Action and they place:

the 2nd card in a region, they must increase the level of Unrest in that same region by 1.
the 3rd card in that region, they must increase the level of Unrest in that same region by 2.

IMPORTANT: During the game, Unification action, card abilities and bonuses might cause an increase of the level of Unrest in a region. This level is recorded with the marker on the region's Unrest track of the player's board.

Unrest tracks

Unrest Tracks have 4 slots, representing the maximum level of Unrest that a region can bear. The leftmost space (space 0) of each track represents no Unrest and the rightmost space (space 3) represents the maximum Unrest in a region.

The level of Unrest is also increased when the player performs the Hire 2 Workers Action, activates some card abilities and builds some Palaces. The level of Unrest can be decreased by performing the Install 1 Governor Action, by gaining Governor and Unification bonuses and by activating some cards (see Card Abilities activation).

IMPORTANT: A player CANNOT perform actions or trigger any effect (card bonuses, Palace tile, etc.) that would cause their level of Unrest to go above 3.

B. Court Action

When playing a Court Action, the player resolves these 2 steps in order:

Perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions.
Activate the Abilities of their Cards.

1. Perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions

The player plays a card from their hand onto the Emperor area, at the top of the Court board. The first card played in the Emperor area is placed face-up on the slot. Following cards will be placed on top and face up, forming a pile.

They must then perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions:

Recruit 1 Official
Hire 2 Workers
Search for the Elixir
Build 1 Palace
Install 1 Governor
Build 1 Wall

The player must choose an action they are able to perform and then must perform it.

IMPORTANT: Any Court Action can be performed with any card (regardless of its color, its number or its ability). The player simply places the card on top of the pile, declares which Action they want to perform, and performs it.

Recruit 1 Official

The player must take 1 Official of their choice from their supply (Alchemist, Architect or General) and place it on their player board, in the region of their choice. There is no limit to the number of Officials (same or different) in a region.

IMPORTANT: Officials are limited to the players' supply (4 of each type). Should a player have placed all their Officials in the regions of their player board, they cannot perform this action.

Each Official has a specific role:

Alchemists will help when carrying out the Search for the Elixir action.
Architects are necessary to Build 1 Palace.
Generals are necessary to Hire 2 Workers.

Search for the Elixir

The player moves their Ship forward 3 spaces, then if it reaches or passes the elixir symbol, they choose one of the following:

They unlock one of their Terracotta Soldiers by taking it from their player board and placing it at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

OR
They choose one of their Alchemist cards set aside and place it in a region with at least one of their Alchemist in it. The player does not gain any Unification token and this does not trigger any Unrest. The 3-cards limit per region still applies.

If the player's Ship reaches or passes the Master Alchemist symbol, they choose an available Master Alchemist card next to the game board and add it to their Alchemist cards. A Master Alchemist card is considered as an Alchemist card (but is more powerful), so it may be played when the player's Ship reaches or passes the elixir symbol. See Appendix 1 for an explanation of all Alchemist and Master Alchemist cards.

IMPORTANT: If a player's Ship reaches the end of the track, any further movement is wasted. If their Ship has already reached the end of the track, they cannot perform this action anymore.

At the end of the game, players will score VPs depending on the number of Alchemist cards in their player board and on the progression of their Ship.

Install 1 Governor

The player must install 1 Governor in a single Region. They declare in which region they want to install the Governor, then:

Remove 1 Official of each type (Alchemist, Architect and General) from the matching region of their player board, placing them back in their supply.
Place 1 of their Governors from their supply in the matching region on the gameboard. They place it on an available space of their choice (with a bonus or not) and immediately receive the indicated bonus, if any (see Appendix 3 for Governor bonuses).
They reset the Unrest to zero in that region by putting the Unrest marker back on space 0. If the Unrest marker was already on space 0, the player skips this step.

IMPORTANT:

If all of a player's Governors are already on the board, that player cannot perform this action.
There is no limit to the number of Governors in a region. If there are no bonuses to get, simply place your Governor in the Governor area from that region.

At the end of the game, players will score VPs in the regions where they have more Governors than any other player.

Hire 2 Workers

The player must choose to hire 2 Workers in any region with a General in it. They declare in which region they are hiring, then:

They must take 2 Workers from the general supply and place them in the matching region of their player board. If there is no General in a region, the player cannot hire 2 workers there. If there are 2 or more Generals in that region, the player still hires 2 Workers, not 2 Workers for each General in that region. There is no limit to the number of Workers in a region.
They must increase the Unrest level in that region by one.

IMPORTANT: A Player cannot perform an action that would cause the Unrest level of the region to go above 3. So, if the Player's Unrest marker in the region is already on 3, they cannot hire 2 workers in that region.

Build 1 Palace

The player must build 1 Palace in any region where they have at least 1 Architect on their player board. They declare in which region they want to build the Palace, then:

They must remove from their player board 2 Workers from that region + 1 Worker from a different region of their choice, returning them to the general supply.
They must place 1 Palace from their supply on the game board, in the Palace area of that region.
They take a Palace tile from this region, if possible. If there are no Palace tile left in this region, the player skips this step.
They take 1 large Unification token (of value 2) of their choice (Writing, Currency or Laws) from the Unification area of the game board, if possible. If there are no large Unification tokens left, the player skips this step.
They score immediately 6 VP + VPs equal to the value of the Palace tile (see Appendix 3 for an explanation of the Palace tiles) they took, if any, then return the Palace tile to the box.

IMPORTANT:

If all of a player's Palaces are already on the board, that player cannot perform this action.
There is no limit to the number of Palaces in a Region. If there is no Palace tile to get, simply place your Palace in the Palace area from that region.

Build 1 Wall

The Wall area of the game board has 3 Wall sites. Each Wall site has 2 sections, each one associated with a Wall tile placed during setup. Walls are not related to any region.

The player must build 1 Wall in any section. They declare in which section they want to build the Wall, then:

They must place 1 Wall from their supply on the game board on an available slot of their choice of that section. Each section has a number of slots equal to the number of players. Only 1 Wall can occupy each slot and a single player cannot build more than 1 Wall per section.
They must spend from their player board 1, 2, or 3 Workers (depending on the number of markings on the chosen slot), returning them to the general supply. If they must remove 2 or 3 Workers, they all must come from different regions.
If they were the first to build on a section, they must take the top Emperor tile from the Wall section, if possible, and only if they have tucked at least one card on their player board (i.e. after having played at least one Unification action). They must immediately place the Emperor tile on any card in their tableau, thus modifying the trigger that activates the bonus of that card. The player cannot choose a card with another Emperor tile already on it. If there is no Emperor tile left on the Wall section, the player skips this step.

IMPORTANT: If all of a player's Walls are already on the board, that player cannot perform this action.

At the end of the game, players will score VPs according to the position of their Walls and how well they meet the conditions shown on the associated Wall tile. See Appendix 2 for an explanation of Walls tiles scoring.

2. Activate Card Abilities

After having performed their Court Action entirely (including bonuses gained with this action), the player must choose one of the following:

A. Activate card abilities placed on their player board, if any.
B. Move 1 Official on their player board.
C. Pass.

A. Activate card abilities

Activating a card ability requires 2 conditions:

The card played at the Court has the appropriate activation number.
- To activate the abilities triggered by the Actions Recruit 1 Official, Search for the Elixir and Install 1 Governor, the card played at Court must have a lower activation number than the card immediately below it.
- To activate the abilities triggered by the Actions Hire 2 Workers, Build 1 Palace and Build 1 Wall, the card played at Court must have a higher activation number than the card immediately below it.
The player can activate the abilities on the cards (on their player boards) whose trigger matches the action just performed.

Then, the player can activate the triggered abilities in the order of their choice.

Exception: The player who plays the first Court Action can decide the value of the initial number. This way, they can always activate their card abilities with the very first card played at the Court.

IMPORTANT:

The type (Writing, Currency and Laws) and the ability of the card is irrelevant when playing a Court Action. Only the activation number matters.
The activation number is used in the game to activate card abilities on the player board only.
A card played at Court does not force players to play the Action that matches the trigger of the card. For example, a player may Build 1 Wall, by playing at Court a card with an Install 1 Governor trigger.
A player CANNOT activate cards in a region of their player board where the Unrest marker is already on 3. This is reminded by an icon.

B. Move 1 Official on their player board

The player may decide to move one of their Officials to an adjacent region (Chu and Yan regions are not adjacent) if:

The activation number of their card played at Court is appropriate but they do not want to activate any card ability.
The activation number of their card played at Court is appropriate but they do not have any card ability triggered by the Court Action they just performed.
The activation number of their card played at Court is not appropriate.

C. Pass

In the case the player does not want to activate their card's abilities or does not (or cannot) move one of their Officials, they can simply decide to end their turn.

End of turn

When their turn ends, the player may place one or more of their Terracotta Soldiers from the entrance of the Mausoleum to one or several Mausoleum tiles, if they fulfill the corresponding conditions (see Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers).

Phase 3 - Unification Rewards

The Unification Rewards phase begins after all players have played their 6 cards during Phase 2 - Play Cards.

Each round, a reward is given to the player who contributed the most to the Unification in each of the Writing, Currency and Laws aspects (i.e. the player with the most Unification tokens in that type).

The Unification rewards are resolved from top to bottom and their order depends on the Unification board used for the game. Rewards are assigned according to:

The aspect (Writing, Currency and Laws), and
The current round (a game lasts 5 rounds).

Resolve these steps in order:

1) Unification Rewards

Players add up the values of their Unification tokens corresponding to the topmost aspect (the 1st row). Small tokens are worth 1 each. Large tokens (gained when building a Palace) are worth 2 each. To be eligible for the reward, a player must have at least 1 Unification token of that type. If no player has tokens of that type, the corresponding reward remains unassigned this round.
The player with the highest value in Unification tokens for the topmost aspect must now declare if they want to accept the reward, or if they pass (in case of a tie, see Tiebreaker below). To accept it, they must be able to immediately take the full reward. If they accept the reward, they must return all of their tokens of that type (value-1 go to the general supply; value-2 to the game board), and take the full reward. They then move their Turn Order marker from its current position to the current Round column in the slot of the reward they just accepted.
If they pass (because they cannot or do not want to take the reward), they keep their Unification tokens, do not take any reward and do not move their Turn Order marker. After they pass, the player with the second-highest value can choose if they want to accept the reward or pass. This goes on until the reward has been assigned, or all players have passed.
Follow the same procedure for the 2nd and the 3rd aspects of the Unification.

IMPORTANT: A player might earn more than one Unification reward in the same round. In this case, they move their Turn Order marker to the reward slot taken last.

Tiebreaker: In case of a tie, tiebreaker order is as follows: Turn Order markers on the turn order track — top to bottom, then markers on the current Round column — top to bottom.

2) New turn order

After all 3 aspects have been checked, move all Turn Order markers still on the Turn Order track to the top of it, if possible. Then move all Turn Order markers on the Reward column to the Turn Order track following the tiebreaker order.

3) Unlocking Terracotta Soldiers

In turn order, players may unlock Terracotta Soldiers (see Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers below) by spending 3 Unification tokens (they may mix types and values, for example by spending large Unification tokens along a small one) for each.

After unlocking one or several Terracotta Soldiers, the player may place one or several of them on a fulfilled Mausoleum condition (see Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers below).

4) Checking Unification tokens limit

Players with unused value-2 Unification tokens (gained when they built a Palace) must return them to the game board.
In turn order, players with more than 5 value-1 Unification tokens must return the excedentary ones of their choice to the general supply so as to keep exactly 5.

5) End of the round

Move the round marker one step to the right to indicate the number of the Round that is about to start, and then start the next round.
After Phase 3 - Unification Rewards, if the round marker is on the 5th space, the game ends.

Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers

The Mausoleum area of the game board is formed by 9 Mausoleum tiles where players are rewarded by the Emperor for placing their Terracotta Soldiers.

Every time a player unlocks a Terracotta Soldier, they take one from their player board and place it at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

At the end of their turn or after accepting a Unification reward, the player may place one or more Terracotta Soldiers in the Mausoleum, if they fulfill the conditions to do so. For each of them, they place one of their unlocked Terracotta Soldiers on the topmost available space (with the highest VP value) of the Mausoleum tile and immediately scores the VP indicated in the space. Only one Terracotta Soldier can occupy each slot and a single player cannot have more than one Terracotta Soldier on any given Mausoleum tile.

IMPORTANT:

The Mausoleum tiles depict a minimum requirement (players may exceed the requirement).
A player may wait a later turn to place one or several of their Terracotta Soldiers.
In a 2-player game, do not place any Terracotta Soldier on a space with a "3+" symbol.

At the end of the game, players will score 10 VP for each row or column they formed with their Terracotta Soldiers and VP depending on the number of Terracotta Soldiers they still have at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

End of the Game

After the 5th round, the game ends. Players calculate their score by adding up these categories:

VP scored during the game. Report on the scorepad the VP you scored during the game.
Majorities of Governors in each region. Each region is scored one at a time. In each region, VPs are assigned for having the majority of Governors there. The player with the most Governors in the region scores 10/15/20 VP in 2/3/4-player games. In case of a tie, VPs are split (rounded down) between the tied players.
Alchemist cards and Ship progression. Each player multiplies the number of Alchemist cards they placed on their player board by the highest VP value reached by their Ship.
Mausoleum bonus. Players score 10 VP for each row or column they formed with their Terracotta Soldiers (regardless of their position on each Mausoleum tile).
Walls. For the sake of clarity, Walls should be scored in turn order. When a Wall is scored, put it on its side as a reminder.
Extra Terracotta Soldiers. Players score 2/5/9 VP if they have 1/2/3+ Terracotta Soldiers at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

All the VPs are added up. The player with the highest total is the winner. In the rare case of a tie, tied players share the victory.

Solo Mode

The solo mode offers you the opportunity to play against Li Si, the prime minister of the Emperor.

COMPONENTS

4 Li Si cards
2 double sided Scoring cards
24 Action cards (5 Unification cards, 4 Elixir cards, 5 Governor cards, 5 Palace cards, 5 Wall cards)

Li Si setup

Setup modifications

The solo game is considered a 2-player game for all setup steps, except as follows:

Choose any player color components and a player board, then place the following components on Li Si's player board:

7 Governors
6 Palaces
6 Walls
8 Terracotta Soldiers. (Then, place the remaining Terracotta Soldier at the entrance of the Mausoleum.)
Place his Score marker on space 0 of the score track.
Take his Turn Order marker and set it aside for now.

Do not use his Official tokens and Unrest markers.

Then, choose which Li Si version (there are 4 versions, of increasing difficulty) to play against and prepare his deck. If this is your first game of Zhanguo, we recommend you to play against Li Si 1. If you already played a game of Zhanguo, you might prefer playing against Li Si 2 for a more competitive challenge. Li Si 3 and Li Si 4 offer progressively tougher challenges.

Take the Li Si card that corresponds to the challenge you wish to play:

This card determines which Solo cards to use from Li Si's deck of actions: take all the Solo cards indicated on the Li Si card and shuffle them to form a 9-card Action deck.
The Li Si card determines how to place the 2 scoring cards to calculate Li Si's VPs at the end of the game. Place one on the top of the other, as indicated, so only the bottom scoring line of the card below is shown.
Place Li Si's Turn Order marker on the Turn Order track as indicated on his card (either 1st or 2nd position). Then place your Turn Order marker on the other position.
Place Li Si's Ship on the space indicated by his card.
Unlock a number of Li Si's Terracotta Soldiers (from his player board) equal to the number indicated on his card and place them at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

How to play (Solo)

Li Si plays differently, because he never performs any Recruit 1 Official or Hire 2 Workers actions. Thus, he performs his actions thanks to a 9-cards Action deck, which depends on the version of Li Si you play against.

Phase 1 - Draw cards. At the beginning of each round, deal 2 cards of each aspect of the Unification (Writing, Currency and Laws) to Li Si and shuffle them to form his face down Unification deck.

Phase 2 - Play cards. Players play their cards alternatively in turn order, like in a multiplayer game. When it is Li Si's turn, draw the first card from his Action deck, perform its action and place the card on his discard pile.

Phase 3 - Unification rewards. Li Si tries to win all the Unification rewards he can (he doesn't gain anything, but just takes them away from you). So, if he can win an Unification reward, he spends all the Unification tokens from this aspect and places his Turn Order marker on the reward, like a player would do in a multiplayer game.

At the end of the phase, if he still has 3 or more unspent Unification tokens, he spends them, starting with the large Unification tokens and then the small tokens of the aspect he has the most in order to unlock as many Terracotta Soldiers as possible.

Finally, shuffle Li Si's discard pile with his Action deck.

Li Si's Action cards anatomy

If there are several options on a card, Li Si always seeks to perform the topmost one, if possible. If this is not possible, then Li Si performs the action below the topmost one, and so on.

IMPORTANT: After being played, cards with a "one-time use" symbol are immediately removed from the game: they do not go to Li Si's discard pile and are therefore played only once during the game. Cards with an "ongoing" symbol are placed in Li Si's discard pile and will be reshuffled into his Action deck at the end of the round.

Unification (1-5)

A) Place the top card of Li Si's Unification deck on his player board, in the leftmost available slot, starting from Chu and proceeding towards the region corresponding to the current round (Chu corresponds to the 1st round, Wei to 2nd round, etc.). Therefore, first place cards in Chu, then, when Chu is filled, place cards in Wei, and so on. Li Si gains the indicated number of Unification tokens, depending on the position of the card in the region (1st, 2nd or 3rd).

OTHERWISE

B) If the region corresponding to the current Round is already filled (with 3 cards in it), play the Unification card at the Emperor's Court and Li Si gains 1 Unification token of each type, if possible.

Search for the Elixir (6-9)

Move Li Si's Ship forward the number of steps indicated on the top right of the card, then check how many elixir symbols have been reached or passed during the Ship movement:

A) If there are no Li Si's Terracotta Soldiers at the entrance of the Mausoleum, Li Si unlocks a Terracotta Soldier for each elixir symbol.

OTHERWISE

B) If there is at least one Li Si's Terracotta Soldier at the entrance of the Mausoleum: For each elixir symbol reached by Li Si's Ship during its movement, randomly place one of his Alchemist cards on his player board in the region corresponding to the current Round.

OTHERWISE

C) If the action above cannot be performed because Li Si has no Alchemist card left or if the region corresponding to the current round is already filled with cards, then Li Si unlocks a Terracotta Soldier for each elixir symbol his Ship reached during the movement.

Clarification: it may happen in rare cases that Li Si's Ship reaches a double elixir symbol and has only 1 spot for cards. In this case, he first places the card and then unlocks a Terracotta Soldier. In the very unlikely case that all the soldiers are already unlocked, Li Si simply doesn't gain anything from the elixir symbol reached.

When Li Si's ship reaches or passes the Master Alchemist symbol, he takes 1 Master Alchemist card at random and adds it to his Alchemist cards.

Install 1 Governor (10-14)

Check the Mausoleum conditions, starting with the first region indicated on the left of the card. If the condition is not fulfilled (i.e. there is no Li Si Terracotta Soldier on this region Mausoleum tile), then place one/two Governors in this region, as indicated on the card. Otherwise, check the Mausoleum condition for the next indicated region, etc.
Li Si never gains what is indicated on the Governor bonus slots.
Place one Li Si's Governor on the first available bonus slot, starting from the left.
Place two Li Si's Governors on the first two available bonus slots, starting from the right.
Place one Li Si's Governor in the Governor area of this region.

If card 14 is in Li Si's deck: If all the Mausoleum conditions are fulfilled, place the Governor in the first Region where the majority is not yet won. In any case, card 14 requires that both Governors must be placed in the same Region.

IMPORTANT: If there is no available slot left, the Governor is placed in the Governor area from this region.

Build 1 Palace (15-19)

Check the Mausoleum conditions, starting with the first region indicated on the left of the card. If the condition is not fulfilled (i.e. there is no Li Si Terracotta Soldier on this region Mausoleum tile), then place a Palace in this region, as indicated on the card. Otherwise, check the Mausoleum condition for the next indicated region, etc.
Li Si immediately scores 6 VP, then gains an available large Unification marker in the order indicated by the card, if any.
Remove the Palace tile, if any and if indicated on the card. Place it on Li Si's player board, in the corresponding region. It will be scored at the end of the game.

If cards 18 or 19 are in Li Si's deck: If all the Region Mausoleum conditions are fulfilled, place the Palace in the first region indicated by priority order on the card.

Build 1 Wall (20-24)

Check the Mausoleum conditions, starting with the first Wall site indicated on the left of the card. If the condition is not fulfilled (i.e. there is no Li Si Terracotta Soldier on this Mausoleum tile), place one Li Si's Wall on the leftmost section (or rightmost, depending on the arrow on the card). Otherwise, check the Mausoleum condition for the next indicated site, etc. Like any other player, Li Si can build only 1 Wall per section. If there is already a Li Si's Wall in a section, he builds in the other section of that Wall site.
If there is an Emperor's tile in the Wall site and only if it is called for by Li Si's action card, then Li Si takes it and immediately removes it from play.
Place a Wall on the first available space starting from the right, then Li Si takes an Emperor's tile, if possible, and removes it from play.
Place a Wall on the first available space starting from the left, then Li Si takes an Emperor's tile, if possible, and removes it from play.
Place a Wall on the first available space starting from the left. Li Si does not take any Emperor tile.

If cards 23 or 24 are in Li Si's deck: If all the Wall Mausoleum conditions are fulfilled, build Li Si's last Wall in the last section without one of his Walls.

Terracotta Soldiers and Mausoleum (Solo)

As soon as Li Si meets the conditions of a Mausoleum tile, he validates it by placing one of his unlocked Terracotta Soldiers (at the entrance of the Mausoleum) on the topmost available slot of the Mausoleum tile and immediately scores the VP indicated on the slot. If Li Si has no Terracotta Soldier at the entrance of the Mausoleum, he will validate the Mausoleum tile when he unlocks a Terracotta Soldier. In the rare case Li Si would meet the condition of more Mausoleum tiles than he has Terracotta Soldiers at the entrance of the Mausoleum, you choose the one he validates.

End game scoring (Solo)

Proceed to end game scoring like in a multiplayer game, but apply the following modifications for Li Si:

Scoring card: To score Governor majorities, Ship progression and Walls, Li Si scores VP as indicated on his Scoring cards. Write down Palace tiles scoring in the VP category. See Li Si scoring cards below for more details.

Li Si's Scoring cards

Scoring card A — Wall: Li Si scores 2/4/6 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Governor: Li Si scores 10 VP for each region in which he has the most Governors. In case of a tie, he and you score 5 VP, like in a 2-player game.
Scoring card B — Wall: Li Si scores 4/6/8 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Governor: Li Si wins all ties and thus, in each region where he and you are tied, he scores 10 VP and you score none.
Scoring card C — Wall: Li Si scores 5/7/9 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Elixir: Li Si multiplies the number of Alchemist cards he placed on his player board by the highest VP value reached by his Ship.
Scoring card D — Wall: Li Si scores 3/5/7 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Elixir: Li Si multiplies the number of Alchemist cards he placed on his player board by the highest VP value reached by his Ship +2.

Appendix 1 — Cards Abilities

Writing/Currency/Laws cards

Move your Ship one space.
Recruit 1 Alchemist / Architect / General in the region of the card.
Move up to one of your Workers to an adjacent region.
Perform up to 2 Official movements.
Reduce the level of Unrest by one in any region.
Gain any one small Unification token.
Gain 1 VP for each Alchemist card in your tableau.
Gain 1 VP for each of your Governors/Palaces/Walls on the main board.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to gain the indicated Unification tokens.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to hire 1 Worker in this region.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to gain 1 VP for each Writing/Currency/Laws card in your tableau.

Alchemist cards

Hire 1 Worker in the region of the card (no Unrest).
Recruit any Official (Alchemist, Architect or General) in the region of the card.
Reduce the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card and reduce Unrest by one in any region.
Perform up to 3 Official movements.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to gain any 2 Unification tokens.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you built at least one Palace.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you installed at least one Governor.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Writing card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Currency card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Laws card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Alchemist card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region with no Unrest (with its Unrest marker on 0).
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have a number of Officials equal to or higher than its level of Unrest.
Place one Alchemist card in any region. You do not need an Alchemist in this region. / Gain 1 VP for each Writing card in your tableau.
Perform up to 3 Official movements. / Gain 1 VP for each Laws card in your tableau.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier / Move up to 2 of your Workers to an adjacent region.
Hire 1 Worker in any region (no Unrest) / Move your Ship 2 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Recruit 2 Architects in the same region / Gain 1 VP for each Currency card in your tableau.
Recruit 2 Generals in the same region / Hire 1 Worker in any region (no Unrest).

Master Alchemist cards

Gain 2 VP for each Alchemist / Master Alchemist card in the region of the card.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier.
Gain 1 VP for each of your Terracotta Soldiers on a Mausoleum tile.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to hire 2 Workers in this region.
Gain VPs equal to the current round number.

Appendix 2 — Wall Tiles

Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one Architect.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one Alchemist.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one General.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one Worker.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you placed at least two cards of the same type (Alchemist, Writing, Currency or Laws).
Gain 2/4/6 VP for each quadruplet of Writing + Currency + Laws + Alchemist cards.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you built at least one Palace.

Appendix 3 — Governor & Palace tiles

Governor tiles

(x2) No bonus. These tiles are used for 2-player and 4-player games only.
Gain 1 VP for each Palace you built / Move your Ship 3 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Gain 1 VP for each Wall you built / Perform up to 4 Official movements.
Reduce the level of Unrest by one in any two regions / Gain 1 VP for each Alchemist card in your tableau.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier / Recruit 2 Alchemists in the same region.

Palace tiles

Gain 3 VP for each of your Writing/Currency/Laws/Alchemist cards in the region where you built the Palace.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region where you built the Palace to gain 2 VP for each of your cards (regardless of their type) in this region. You cannot take this tile if your level of Unrest in that region is already at 3.

Appendix 4 — Starting tiles

Recruit 1 General in Chu, then recruit 1 Alchemist/Architect/General in Chu.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest in the indicated region to gain the indicated Unification tokens.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then move your Ship 2 spaces.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest by one in Chu to unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier and move your Ship 1 space.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest by one in Chu and Yan to hire 1 Worker in Chu.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest by one in Wei, Zhao and Qi to place any Alchemist card in the Chu area of your player board.

Appendix 5 — Unification boards

The Unification board determines the order and content of the three rewards (Writing, Currency, Laws) resolved each round. Two double-sided boards are available.

Board 1

Writing:

Recruit any Official (Alchemist, Architect or General) in Chu.
Place one Alchemist card in any region. You do not need an Alchemist in this region.
Install 1 Governor for free in Chu or Wei. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.
Unlock 2 Terracotta Soldiers.
Build 1 Palace for free in any region. Gain 6 VP, take a Palace tile if possible, and score it. Do not take any large Unification token.

Currency:

Recruit 2 Generals in Chu.
Move your Ship 4 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Hire 2 Workers in any region (no Unrest).
Install 1 Governor for free in Zhao or Qi. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier. Place one of your unlocked Terracotta Soldiers on any Mausoleum tile with no Terracotta Soldier from your color, regardless if you have fulfilled the condition depicted on the tile or not.

Laws:

Recruit 2 Architects in Chu.
Hire 2 Workers in Wei (no Unrest).
Reset the level of Unrest in up to 3 regions by moving their Unrest markers back to the "0" space.
Build 1 Wall for free. Gain an Emperor tile, if possible.
Install 1 Governor for free in any region. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.

Board 2

Laws:

Recruit any Official (Alchemist, Architect or General) in Chu.
Reset Unrest in up to 2 regions by moving their Unrest markers back to the "0" space.
Hire 2 Workers in any same region (no Unrest).
Place one of your unlocked Terracotta Soldiers on any Mausoleum tile with no Terracotta Soldier from your color, regardless if you have fulfilled the condition depicted on the tile or not.
Build 1 Wall for free. Gain an Emperor tile, if possible.

Writing:

Move your Ship 3 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Recruit an Architect and a General in Wei.
Recruit any 2 Officials (Alchemist, Architect or General) in any region.
Install 1 Governor for free in Zhao or Qi. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.
Build 1 Palace for free in any region. Gain 6 VP, take a Palace tile if possible, and score it. Do not take any large Unification token.

Currency:

Hire 1 Worker in any region (no Unrest).
Recruit 2 Alchemists in any region.
Place up to two Alchemist cards in the regions of your choice. You do not need an Alchemist in these regions. You may place both cards in the same region.
Build 1 Wall for free. Gain an Emperor tile, if possible.
Move your Ship 7 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.

Credits

Game Design and solo mode: Marco Canetta & Stefania Niccolini Art: David Sitbon & Ulric Maes Graphic Design: Ulric Maes Development: Marco Canetta & Stefania Niccolini & Matthieu Verdier Rules writing: Matthieu Verdier Production: Emmanuel Beltrando Special thanks: Alexandre Figuière

Zhanguo: The First Empire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview and Goal of the Game
Components
Setup
- General setup for 2-4 players
- Player setup
How to Play
Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers
End of the Game
Solo Mode
Appendix 1 — Cards Abilities
Appendix 2 — Wall Tiles
Appendix 3 — Governor & Palace tiles
Appendix 4 — Starting tiles
Appendix 5 — Unification boards
Credits

Overview and Goal of the Game

When you are in the presence of the Emperor at his Court, you will have to know how to approach or move away appropriately, because only at the right distance can you obtain the emperor's approval.

At the end of the game, the player who made the greatest contribution to the Emperor's cause by scoring the most Victory Points will win.

Components

Boards

1 Game board (double sided)
1 Court board
4 Player boards

Cards

120 Unification cards (Laws x40, Currency x40, Writing x40)
20 Alchemist cards
5 Master Alchemist cards
5 Alchemist cards for each player
30 Solo cards (4 Li Si cards, 2 double sided scoring cards, 24 Action cards)

Tiles & tokens

44 Worker tokens
6 Emperor tiles
3 large Unification tokens of value 2 (Writing x1, Currency x1, Laws x1)
39 Unification tokens of value 1 (Writing x13, Currency x13, Laws x13)
1 Unification tile (double sided)
12 Governor tiles (including 2 blanks with no bonus on them, for 2-player and 4-player games)
7 Wall tiles (double sided)
15 Palace tiles
10 Starting tiles
4 tokens 40/80 VP
9 Mausoleum tokens (Region x5, Wall x3, Elixir x1, for Advanced mode)
9 Mausoleum tiles (Region x5, Elixir x1, Wall x3)
48 Officials (Alchemist x16, Architect x16, General x16)
4 player aids (English, French)

Wooden pieces

1 Round marker
24 Walls (6 of each player color)
36 Terracotta Soldiers (9 of each player color)
4 Score markers (1 of each player color)
28 Governors (7 of each player color)
24 Palaces (6 of each player color)
20 Unrest markers
4 Ships (1 of each player color)
4 Turn Order markers (1 of each player color)

Other

2 rulebooks (English, French)
1 scorepad

Setup

General setup for 2-4 players

1A. Place the game board in the middle of the table, on the side that corresponds to the number of players, as indicated at the bottom right of the board.

1B. Place the Court board next to the game board.

Place the Round marker on the 1st space of the Round track.
Sort the 9 Mausoleum tiles by icon (Elixir, Wall, Region) and randomly place them on their corresponding spaces on the game board (a Region tile on a Region space, etc.). Return the 9 Mausoleum tokens to the box: they are used for the advanced game only.
- ADVANCED MODE: Before placing the 9 Mausoleum tiles, randomly place the 9 Mausoleum tokens on the top left of each Mausoleum spot (therefore covering the 9 printed symbols), then place the 9 Mausoleum tiles accordingly (a Region Mausoleum tile on a Region spot, etc.).

4A. Shuffle the 7 Wall tiles, and place one on each of the 6 Wall spaces on the gameboard, on a random side. Return the unused tile to the box.

TIP: In a 3-player game, you may use the Walls of the unused color to fill the positions marked with a "4": these positions cannot be built during the game.

4B. Shuffle the 6 Emperor tiles, then:

In a 4-player game, place them according to their backside on the corresponding Wall sections, one tile per section. Then, turn the tiles face up.
In a 3-player game, discard 1 tile at random before placing them according to their backside on the corresponding Wall sections, so 5 tiles are used. The unused tile is returned to the box. Place one tile in each section, then, turn the tiles face up.
In a 2-player game, discard 2 tiles at random before placing them according to their backside on the corresponding Wall sections, so 4 tiles are used. The unused tiles are returned to the box. Place one tile in each section, then, turn the tiles face up.

Shuffle the 15 Palace tiles, then randomly place one face up on each Palace space in each region (in a 3-player game, do not place any Palace tile on spaces marked with a "4"). Return the unused Palace tiles to the box.
In a 4-player game, shuffle the 2 blank Governor tiles with 8 Governor tiles with bonuses (remaining Governor tiles are returned to the box) and place 2 at random in each Region, face up.
- In a 3-player game, remove the 2 blank Governor tiles from the game. Then, draw at random 5 Governor tiles with bonuses and place 1 at random in each Region, face up. Do not place any Governor tile on spaces marked with a "4". Remaining Governor tiles are returned to the box.
- In a 2-player game, shuffle the 2 Governor blank tiles with 3 Governor tiles with bonuses (remaining Governor tiles are returned to the box) and place 1 at random in each Region, face up.
Place a number of Master Alchemist cards equal to the number of players next to the game board. Return the remaining cards to the box.

8A. Sort the 120 Unification cards by type (Writing, Currency and Laws, 40 of each). Shuffle them separately and place them face down next to the main board.

8B. Take 9/11/13 Writing, Currency and Laws (in 2/3/4 player-games respectively) and place them next to the main board. In 2- and 3-player games, return the unused Unification tokens to the box.

8C. Place the 3 large Unification tokens on their matching spot on the game board, in the Unification area.

Place one 40/80 VP token per player at the end of the score track.
Place all the Worker tokens next to the main board.

IMPORTANT: Workers are the only component that is not supposed to be limited. If you run out of Workers, use a suitable replacement.

Player setup

Each player places their player board in front of them.
Each player chooses a color (Blue, Yellow, Red, or Purple), takes the following components in the chosen color and places them on the corresponding spaces of their player board:
- 7 Governors, 6 Palaces, 6 Walls, 8 Terracotta Soldiers. Each player's 9th Terracotta Soldier is placed at the entrance of the Mausoleum, on the main board: it is considered "unlocked".
- 4 Officials of each type (Alchemist, Architect, General) on their corresponding spaces. The bottom of each Official tile indicates whose player it belongs to.
- 1 set of 5 Alchemist cards (the player symbol is indicated on the bottom left), that goes to the personal supply of the player, face down. Then, each player takes 5 Unrest markers and places them on the 0 space of the Unrest track of each Region.
Each player places their Ship on the starting position of the Elixir route, and their Score marker on the "0" space of the Victory Points (VPs) track.
Randomly determine the 1st player, then place their Turn Order marker on the 1st space of the Turn Order track in the Unification area, at the bottom left of the main board. Then, going clockwise from the 1st player, place other players' Turn Order markers on next available space.
Deal 2 Starting tiles to each player. They simultaneously choose one and get what is depicted on it. Then, each player returns both tiles to the box. See Appendix 4 for an explanation of all Starting tiles bonuses.

Note: all the components the players have in front of them, as well as the back of their cards in hand, must always be visible to the other players.

How to Play

A game of Zhanguo lasts 5 rounds, each of them being divided into 3 phases, as indicated on the Court board:

Phase 1 - Draw Cards: players draw 2 cards from each deck (Writing, Currency and Laws).
Phase 2 - Play Cards: players play their turn by playing one card from their hand.
Phase 3 - Unification Rewards: the player who contributed the most in each of the 3 aspects of the Unification (Writing, Currency and Laws) gets a reward.

Phase 1 - Draw Cards

At the beginning of each round, each player draws 2 cards from each deck (Writing, Currency and Laws), for a total of 6 cards, and adds them to their hand.

Card anatomy

IMPORTANT: When asked, players must always show their opponents the back of their cards in hand.

Phase 2 - Play Cards

How to play a card

When it is their turn, the player must play 1 card from their hand and either:

Perform the Unification Action (A): they place the card into one of the 5 regions of their player board.

OR
Perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions (B): they place the card in the Emperor area, on the Court board. Cards played that way are placed face-up one on top of the other, forming a pile.

A. Unification Action

Resolve these steps in order:

The player plays one card from their hand in a region of their choice on their player board.
They tuck it face-up underneath the top edge of their board (or previously placed cards), so that only the top of the card is showing (with its ability and its trigger).
They gain 1/2/3 Unification tokens in the color of the card they just placed, based on whether it was the 1st/2nd/3rd card in that region.

IMPORTANT:

Each region on the player board can host up to 3 cards. After the player has placed the 3rd card in a region, they cannot place anymore cards there.
Once placed, cards cannot be moved or removed for the remainder of the game.
If there are not enough Unification tokens of the appropriate color in the general supply, the player takes the maximum they can (this may be 0).

Unification action and Unrest

When a player performs the Unification Action and they place:

the 2nd card in a region, they must increase the level of Unrest in that same region by 1.
the 3rd card in that region, they must increase the level of Unrest in that same region by 2.

Unrest tracks

IMPORTANT: A player CANNOT perform actions or trigger any effect (card bonuses, Palace tile, etc.) that would cause their level of Unrest to go above 3.

B. Court Action

When playing a Court Action, the player resolves these 2 steps in order:

Perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions.
Activate the Abilities of their Cards.

1. Perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions

They must then perform 1 of the 6 Court Actions:

Recruit 1 Official
Hire 2 Workers
Search for the Elixir
Build 1 Palace
Install 1 Governor
Build 1 Wall

The player must choose an action they are able to perform and then must perform it.

Recruit 1 Official

IMPORTANT: Officials are limited to the players' supply (4 of each type). Should a player have placed all their Officials in the regions of their player board, they cannot perform this action.

Each Official has a specific role:

Alchemists will help when carrying out the Search for the Elixir action.
Architects are necessary to Build 1 Palace.
Generals are necessary to Hire 2 Workers.

Search for the Elixir

The player moves their Ship forward 3 spaces, then if it reaches or passes the elixir symbol, they choose one of the following:

They unlock one of their Terracotta Soldiers by taking it from their player board and placing it at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

OR
They choose one of their Alchemist cards set aside and place it in a region with at least one of their Alchemist in it. The player does not gain any Unification token and this does not trigger any Unrest. The 3-cards limit per region still applies.

IMPORTANT: If a player's Ship reaches the end of the track, any further movement is wasted. If their Ship has already reached the end of the track, they cannot perform this action anymore.

At the end of the game, players will score VPs depending on the number of Alchemist cards in their player board and on the progression of their Ship.

Install 1 Governor

The player must install 1 Governor in a single Region. They declare in which region they want to install the Governor, then:

Remove 1 Official of each type (Alchemist, Architect and General) from the matching region of their player board, placing them back in their supply.
Place 1 of their Governors from their supply in the matching region on the gameboard. They place it on an available space of their choice (with a bonus or not) and immediately receive the indicated bonus, if any (see Appendix 3 for Governor bonuses).
They reset the Unrest to zero in that region by putting the Unrest marker back on space 0. If the Unrest marker was already on space 0, the player skips this step.

IMPORTANT:

If all of a player's Governors are already on the board, that player cannot perform this action.
There is no limit to the number of Governors in a region. If there are no bonuses to get, simply place your Governor in the Governor area from that region.

At the end of the game, players will score VPs in the regions where they have more Governors than any other player.

Hire 2 Workers

The player must choose to hire 2 Workers in any region with a General in it. They declare in which region they are hiring, then:

They must take 2 Workers from the general supply and place them in the matching region of their player board. If there is no General in a region, the player cannot hire 2 workers there. If there are 2 or more Generals in that region, the player still hires 2 Workers, not 2 Workers for each General in that region. There is no limit to the number of Workers in a region.
They must increase the Unrest level in that region by one.

Build 1 Palace

The player must build 1 Palace in any region where they have at least 1 Architect on their player board. They declare in which region they want to build the Palace, then:

They must remove from their player board 2 Workers from that region + 1 Worker from a different region of their choice, returning them to the general supply.
They must place 1 Palace from their supply on the game board, in the Palace area of that region.
They take a Palace tile from this region, if possible. If there are no Palace tile left in this region, the player skips this step.
They take 1 large Unification token (of value 2) of their choice (Writing, Currency or Laws) from the Unification area of the game board, if possible. If there are no large Unification tokens left, the player skips this step.
They score immediately 6 VP + VPs equal to the value of the Palace tile (see Appendix 3 for an explanation of the Palace tiles) they took, if any, then return the Palace tile to the box.

IMPORTANT:

If all of a player's Palaces are already on the board, that player cannot perform this action.
There is no limit to the number of Palaces in a Region. If there is no Palace tile to get, simply place your Palace in the Palace area from that region.

Build 1 Wall

The Wall area of the game board has 3 Wall sites. Each Wall site has 2 sections, each one associated with a Wall tile placed during setup. Walls are not related to any region.

The player must build 1 Wall in any section. They declare in which section they want to build the Wall, then:

They must place 1 Wall from their supply on the game board on an available slot of their choice of that section. Each section has a number of slots equal to the number of players. Only 1 Wall can occupy each slot and a single player cannot build more than 1 Wall per section.
They must spend from their player board 1, 2, or 3 Workers (depending on the number of markings on the chosen slot), returning them to the general supply. If they must remove 2 or 3 Workers, they all must come from different regions.
If they were the first to build on a section, they must take the top Emperor tile from the Wall section, if possible, and only if they have tucked at least one card on their player board (i.e. after having played at least one Unification action). They must immediately place the Emperor tile on any card in their tableau, thus modifying the trigger that activates the bonus of that card. The player cannot choose a card with another Emperor tile already on it. If there is no Emperor tile left on the Wall section, the player skips this step.

IMPORTANT: If all of a player's Walls are already on the board, that player cannot perform this action.

2. Activate Card Abilities

After having performed their Court Action entirely (including bonuses gained with this action), the player must choose one of the following:

A. Activate card abilities placed on their player board, if any.
B. Move 1 Official on their player board.
C. Pass.

A. Activate card abilities

Activating a card ability requires 2 conditions:

The card played at the Court has the appropriate activation number.
- To activate the abilities triggered by the Actions Recruit 1 Official, Search for the Elixir and Install 1 Governor, the card played at Court must have a lower activation number than the card immediately below it.
- To activate the abilities triggered by the Actions Hire 2 Workers, Build 1 Palace and Build 1 Wall, the card played at Court must have a higher activation number than the card immediately below it.
The player can activate the abilities on the cards (on their player boards) whose trigger matches the action just performed.

Then, the player can activate the triggered abilities in the order of their choice.

IMPORTANT:

The type (Writing, Currency and Laws) and the ability of the card is irrelevant when playing a Court Action. Only the activation number matters.
The activation number is used in the game to activate card abilities on the player board only.
A card played at Court does not force players to play the Action that matches the trigger of the card. For example, a player may Build 1 Wall, by playing at Court a card with an Install 1 Governor trigger.
A player CANNOT activate cards in a region of their player board where the Unrest marker is already on 3. This is reminded by an icon.

B. Move 1 Official on their player board

The player may decide to move one of their Officials to an adjacent region (Chu and Yan regions are not adjacent) if:

The activation number of their card played at Court is appropriate but they do not want to activate any card ability.
The activation number of their card played at Court is appropriate but they do not have any card ability triggered by the Court Action they just performed.
The activation number of their card played at Court is not appropriate.

C. Pass

In the case the player does not want to activate their card's abilities or does not (or cannot) move one of their Officials, they can simply decide to end their turn.

End of turn

Phase 3 - Unification Rewards

The Unification Rewards phase begins after all players have played their 6 cards during Phase 2 - Play Cards.

The Unification rewards are resolved from top to bottom and their order depends on the Unification board used for the game. Rewards are assigned according to:

The aspect (Writing, Currency and Laws), and
The current round (a game lasts 5 rounds).

Resolve these steps in order:

1) Unification Rewards

Players add up the values of their Unification tokens corresponding to the topmost aspect (the 1st row). Small tokens are worth 1 each. Large tokens (gained when building a Palace) are worth 2 each. To be eligible for the reward, a player must have at least 1 Unification token of that type. If no player has tokens of that type, the corresponding reward remains unassigned this round.
The player with the highest value in Unification tokens for the topmost aspect must now declare if they want to accept the reward, or if they pass (in case of a tie, see Tiebreaker below). To accept it, they must be able to immediately take the full reward. If they accept the reward, they must return all of their tokens of that type (value-1 go to the general supply; value-2 to the game board), and take the full reward. They then move their Turn Order marker from its current position to the current Round column in the slot of the reward they just accepted.
If they pass (because they cannot or do not want to take the reward), they keep their Unification tokens, do not take any reward and do not move their Turn Order marker. After they pass, the player with the second-highest value can choose if they want to accept the reward or pass. This goes on until the reward has been assigned, or all players have passed.
Follow the same procedure for the 2nd and the 3rd aspects of the Unification.

IMPORTANT: A player might earn more than one Unification reward in the same round. In this case, they move their Turn Order marker to the reward slot taken last.

Tiebreaker: In case of a tie, tiebreaker order is as follows: Turn Order markers on the turn order track — top to bottom, then markers on the current Round column — top to bottom.

2) New turn order

3) Unlocking Terracotta Soldiers

After unlocking one or several Terracotta Soldiers, the player may place one or several of them on a fulfilled Mausoleum condition (see Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers below).

4) Checking Unification tokens limit

Players with unused value-2 Unification tokens (gained when they built a Palace) must return them to the game board.
In turn order, players with more than 5 value-1 Unification tokens must return the excedentary ones of their choice to the general supply so as to keep exactly 5.

5) End of the round

Move the round marker one step to the right to indicate the number of the Round that is about to start, and then start the next round.
After Phase 3 - Unification Rewards, if the round marker is on the 5th space, the game ends.

Mausoleum and Terracotta Soldiers

The Mausoleum area of the game board is formed by 9 Mausoleum tiles where players are rewarded by the Emperor for placing their Terracotta Soldiers.

Every time a player unlocks a Terracotta Soldier, they take one from their player board and place it at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

IMPORTANT:

The Mausoleum tiles depict a minimum requirement (players may exceed the requirement).
A player may wait a later turn to place one or several of their Terracotta Soldiers.
In a 2-player game, do not place any Terracotta Soldier on a space with a "3+" symbol.

End of the Game

After the 5th round, the game ends. Players calculate their score by adding up these categories:

VP scored during the game. Report on the scorepad the VP you scored during the game.
Majorities of Governors in each region. Each region is scored one at a time. In each region, VPs are assigned for having the majority of Governors there. The player with the most Governors in the region scores 10/15/20 VP in 2/3/4-player games. In case of a tie, VPs are split (rounded down) between the tied players.
Alchemist cards and Ship progression. Each player multiplies the number of Alchemist cards they placed on their player board by the highest VP value reached by their Ship.
Mausoleum bonus. Players score 10 VP for each row or column they formed with their Terracotta Soldiers (regardless of their position on each Mausoleum tile).
Walls. For the sake of clarity, Walls should be scored in turn order. When a Wall is scored, put it on its side as a reminder.
Extra Terracotta Soldiers. Players score 2/5/9 VP if they have 1/2/3+ Terracotta Soldiers at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

All the VPs are added up. The player with the highest total is the winner. In the rare case of a tie, tied players share the victory.

Solo Mode

The solo mode offers you the opportunity to play against Li Si, the prime minister of the Emperor.

COMPONENTS

4 Li Si cards
2 double sided Scoring cards
24 Action cards (5 Unification cards, 4 Elixir cards, 5 Governor cards, 5 Palace cards, 5 Wall cards)

Li Si setup

Setup modifications

The solo game is considered a 2-player game for all setup steps, except as follows:

Choose any player color components and a player board, then place the following components on Li Si's player board:

7 Governors
6 Palaces
6 Walls
8 Terracotta Soldiers. (Then, place the remaining Terracotta Soldier at the entrance of the Mausoleum.)
Place his Score marker on space 0 of the score track.
Take his Turn Order marker and set it aside for now.

Do not use his Official tokens and Unrest markers.

Take the Li Si card that corresponds to the challenge you wish to play:

This card determines which Solo cards to use from Li Si's deck of actions: take all the Solo cards indicated on the Li Si card and shuffle them to form a 9-card Action deck.
The Li Si card determines how to place the 2 scoring cards to calculate Li Si's VPs at the end of the game. Place one on the top of the other, as indicated, so only the bottom scoring line of the card below is shown.
Place Li Si's Turn Order marker on the Turn Order track as indicated on his card (either 1st or 2nd position). Then place your Turn Order marker on the other position.
Place Li Si's Ship on the space indicated by his card.
Unlock a number of Li Si's Terracotta Soldiers (from his player board) equal to the number indicated on his card and place them at the entrance of the Mausoleum.

How to play (Solo)

Phase 1 - Draw cards. At the beginning of each round, deal 2 cards of each aspect of the Unification (Writing, Currency and Laws) to Li Si and shuffle them to form his face down Unification deck.

Finally, shuffle Li Si's discard pile with his Action deck.

Li Si's Action cards anatomy

If there are several options on a card, Li Si always seeks to perform the topmost one, if possible. If this is not possible, then Li Si performs the action below the topmost one, and so on.

Unification (1-5)

OTHERWISE

Search for the Elixir (6-9)

Move Li Si's Ship forward the number of steps indicated on the top right of the card, then check how many elixir symbols have been reached or passed during the Ship movement:

A) If there are no Li Si's Terracotta Soldiers at the entrance of the Mausoleum, Li Si unlocks a Terracotta Soldier for each elixir symbol.

OTHERWISE

When Li Si's ship reaches or passes the Master Alchemist symbol, he takes 1 Master Alchemist card at random and adds it to his Alchemist cards.

Install 1 Governor (10-14)

Check the Mausoleum conditions, starting with the first region indicated on the left of the card. If the condition is not fulfilled (i.e. there is no Li Si Terracotta Soldier on this region Mausoleum tile), then place one/two Governors in this region, as indicated on the card. Otherwise, check the Mausoleum condition for the next indicated region, etc.
Li Si never gains what is indicated on the Governor bonus slots.
Place one Li Si's Governor on the first available bonus slot, starting from the left.
Place two Li Si's Governors on the first two available bonus slots, starting from the right.
Place one Li Si's Governor in the Governor area of this region.

IMPORTANT: If there is no available slot left, the Governor is placed in the Governor area from this region.

Build 1 Palace (15-19)

Check the Mausoleum conditions, starting with the first region indicated on the left of the card. If the condition is not fulfilled (i.e. there is no Li Si Terracotta Soldier on this region Mausoleum tile), then place a Palace in this region, as indicated on the card. Otherwise, check the Mausoleum condition for the next indicated region, etc.
Li Si immediately scores 6 VP, then gains an available large Unification marker in the order indicated by the card, if any.
Remove the Palace tile, if any and if indicated on the card. Place it on Li Si's player board, in the corresponding region. It will be scored at the end of the game.

If cards 18 or 19 are in Li Si's deck: If all the Region Mausoleum conditions are fulfilled, place the Palace in the first region indicated by priority order on the card.

Build 1 Wall (20-24)

Check the Mausoleum conditions, starting with the first Wall site indicated on the left of the card. If the condition is not fulfilled (i.e. there is no Li Si Terracotta Soldier on this Mausoleum tile), place one Li Si's Wall on the leftmost section (or rightmost, depending on the arrow on the card). Otherwise, check the Mausoleum condition for the next indicated site, etc. Like any other player, Li Si can build only 1 Wall per section. If there is already a Li Si's Wall in a section, he builds in the other section of that Wall site.
If there is an Emperor's tile in the Wall site and only if it is called for by Li Si's action card, then Li Si takes it and immediately removes it from play.
Place a Wall on the first available space starting from the right, then Li Si takes an Emperor's tile, if possible, and removes it from play.
Place a Wall on the first available space starting from the left, then Li Si takes an Emperor's tile, if possible, and removes it from play.
Place a Wall on the first available space starting from the left. Li Si does not take any Emperor tile.

If cards 23 or 24 are in Li Si's deck: If all the Wall Mausoleum conditions are fulfilled, build Li Si's last Wall in the last section without one of his Walls.

Terracotta Soldiers and Mausoleum (Solo)

End game scoring (Solo)

Proceed to end game scoring like in a multiplayer game, but apply the following modifications for Li Si:

Scoring card: To score Governor majorities, Ship progression and Walls, Li Si scores VP as indicated on his Scoring cards. Write down Palace tiles scoring in the VP category. See Li Si scoring cards below for more details.

Li Si's Scoring cards

Scoring card A — Wall: Li Si scores 2/4/6 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Governor: Li Si scores 10 VP for each region in which he has the most Governors. In case of a tie, he and you score 5 VP, like in a 2-player game.
Scoring card B — Wall: Li Si scores 4/6/8 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Governor: Li Si wins all ties and thus, in each region where he and you are tied, he scores 10 VP and you score none.
Scoring card C — Wall: Li Si scores 5/7/9 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Elixir: Li Si multiplies the number of Alchemist cards he placed on his player board by the highest VP value reached by his Ship.
Scoring card D — Wall: Li Si scores 3/5/7 VP depending on the position of the Wall. Palace: Li Si scores the Palace tiles he placed in the regions of his player board. Elixir: Li Si multiplies the number of Alchemist cards he placed on his player board by the highest VP value reached by his Ship +2.

Appendix 1 — Cards Abilities

Writing/Currency/Laws cards

Move your Ship one space.
Recruit 1 Alchemist / Architect / General in the region of the card.
Move up to one of your Workers to an adjacent region.
Perform up to 2 Official movements.
Reduce the level of Unrest by one in any region.
Gain any one small Unification token.
Gain 1 VP for each Alchemist card in your tableau.
Gain 1 VP for each of your Governors/Palaces/Walls on the main board.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to gain the indicated Unification tokens.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to hire 1 Worker in this region.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to gain 1 VP for each Writing/Currency/Laws card in your tableau.

Alchemist cards

Hire 1 Worker in the region of the card (no Unrest).
Recruit any Official (Alchemist, Architect or General) in the region of the card.
Reduce the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card and reduce Unrest by one in any region.
Perform up to 3 Official movements.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to gain any 2 Unification tokens.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you built at least one Palace.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you installed at least one Governor.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Writing card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Currency card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Laws card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you placed at least one Alchemist card.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region with no Unrest (with its Unrest marker on 0).
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have a number of Officials equal to or higher than its level of Unrest.
Place one Alchemist card in any region. You do not need an Alchemist in this region. / Gain 1 VP for each Writing card in your tableau.
Perform up to 3 Official movements. / Gain 1 VP for each Laws card in your tableau.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier / Move up to 2 of your Workers to an adjacent region.
Hire 1 Worker in any region (no Unrest) / Move your Ship 2 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Recruit 2 Architects in the same region / Gain 1 VP for each Currency card in your tableau.
Recruit 2 Generals in the same region / Hire 1 Worker in any region (no Unrest).

Master Alchemist cards

Gain 2 VP for each Alchemist / Master Alchemist card in the region of the card.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier.
Gain 1 VP for each of your Terracotta Soldiers on a Mausoleum tile.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region of the card to hire 2 Workers in this region.
Gain VPs equal to the current round number.

Appendix 2 — Wall Tiles

Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one Architect.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one Alchemist.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one General.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you have at least one Worker.
Gain 2/3/4 VP for each region in which you placed at least two cards of the same type (Alchemist, Writing, Currency or Laws).
Gain 2/4/6 VP for each quadruplet of Writing + Currency + Laws + Alchemist cards.
Gain 1/2/3 VP for each region in which you built at least one Palace.

Appendix 3 — Governor & Palace tiles

Governor tiles

(x2) No bonus. These tiles are used for 2-player and 4-player games only.
Gain 1 VP for each Palace you built / Move your Ship 3 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Gain 1 VP for each Wall you built / Perform up to 4 Official movements.
Reduce the level of Unrest by one in any two regions / Gain 1 VP for each Alchemist card in your tableau.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier / Recruit 2 Alchemists in the same region.

Palace tiles

Gain 3 VP for each of your Writing/Currency/Laws/Alchemist cards in the region where you built the Palace.
Increase the level of Unrest by one in the region where you built the Palace to gain 2 VP for each of your cards (regardless of their type) in this region. You cannot take this tile if your level of Unrest in that region is already at 3.

Appendix 4 — Starting tiles

Recruit 1 General in Chu, then recruit 1 Alchemist/Architect/General in Chu.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest in the indicated region to gain the indicated Unification tokens.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then move your Ship 2 spaces.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest by one in Chu to unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier and move your Ship 1 space.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest by one in Chu and Yan to hire 1 Worker in Chu.
Recruit 1 General in Chu, then increase the level of Unrest by one in Wei, Zhao and Qi to place any Alchemist card in the Chu area of your player board.

Appendix 5 — Unification boards

The Unification board determines the order and content of the three rewards (Writing, Currency, Laws) resolved each round. Two double-sided boards are available.

Board 1

Writing:

Recruit any Official (Alchemist, Architect or General) in Chu.
Place one Alchemist card in any region. You do not need an Alchemist in this region.
Install 1 Governor for free in Chu or Wei. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.
Unlock 2 Terracotta Soldiers.
Build 1 Palace for free in any region. Gain 6 VP, take a Palace tile if possible, and score it. Do not take any large Unification token.

Currency:

Recruit 2 Generals in Chu.
Move your Ship 4 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Hire 2 Workers in any region (no Unrest).
Install 1 Governor for free in Zhao or Qi. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.
Unlock 1 Terracotta Soldier. Place one of your unlocked Terracotta Soldiers on any Mausoleum tile with no Terracotta Soldier from your color, regardless if you have fulfilled the condition depicted on the tile or not.

Laws:

Recruit 2 Architects in Chu.
Hire 2 Workers in Wei (no Unrest).
Reset the level of Unrest in up to 3 regions by moving their Unrest markers back to the "0" space.
Build 1 Wall for free. Gain an Emperor tile, if possible.
Install 1 Governor for free in any region. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.

Board 2

Laws:

Recruit any Official (Alchemist, Architect or General) in Chu.
Reset Unrest in up to 2 regions by moving their Unrest markers back to the "0" space.
Hire 2 Workers in any same region (no Unrest).
Place one of your unlocked Terracotta Soldiers on any Mausoleum tile with no Terracotta Soldier from your color, regardless if you have fulfilled the condition depicted on the tile or not.
Build 1 Wall for free. Gain an Emperor tile, if possible.

Writing:

Move your Ship 3 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.
Recruit an Architect and a General in Wei.
Recruit any 2 Officials (Alchemist, Architect or General) in any region.
Install 1 Governor for free in Zhao or Qi. Receive the indicated bonus and reset the level of Unrest to zero in that region, if possible.
Build 1 Palace for free in any region. Gain 6 VP, take a Palace tile if possible, and score it. Do not take any large Unification token.

Currency:

Hire 1 Worker in any region (no Unrest).
Recruit 2 Alchemists in any region.
Place up to two Alchemist cards in the regions of your choice. You do not need an Alchemist in these regions. You may place both cards in the same region.
Build 1 Wall for free. Gain an Emperor tile, if possible.
Move your Ship 7 spaces. If you reach or pass the elixir symbol, resolve it, as usual. If you reach the end of the track during this movement, waste any movement in excess. If your Ship is already at the end of the track before obtaining the reward, you cannot claim this reward.