Overview

Win the most great battles at the end of 3 rounds or immediately win early under certain conditions

Clan Selection

To begin, players will choose their 3 clans as such:

Player 1 picks 1 clan

Player 2 picks 2 clans

Player 1 picks 2 clans

Player 2 picks 1 clan

The two clans not picked will be flipped and their ongoing abilities will affect both players

After which the players shuffle their 3 clans together and draw 7 cards

If a player has less than 2 Troops in their starting hand, they may shuffle their whole hand back into their deck and draw 7, this can be repeated as many times as a player wishes so long as each time they have less than 2 Troops

Each clan has 8 Troops (level 1), 5 Heroes (level 2), 2 Immortals (level 3) for a total of 24 Troops, 15 Heroes, 6 Immortals per player

Turn

Players take turns until one player passes, at which point the remaining player can take up to 3 more turns

On a turn, a player can take one of the following actions:

Play a Card

Make a Shift

Spend Activation Tokens

Pass

At the end of each turn, a player cannot hold more than 7 cards in hand

Play a Card

Your play area is split into 3 rows of 5 spaces each

Each row represents a type, Troop/Hero/Immortal from bottom to top

Each card must be "supported" by having one below it, e.g. you cannot play a Hero if the Troop space below it is empty

From this, the first card you will ever play is a Troop and this first one only is free

Going forward, to play another Troop, if it matches the same clan as another Troop already in play, it is free to play. If it does NOT match a clan with another Troop in play, discard 2 other cards from your hand to play it (note that discards are public knowledge)

If you find yourself in a situation with no Troops or all face down Troops, the next Troop you play is free.

To play a Hero, you must have a minimum of one Troop from the matching clan.

To play an Immortal, you must have a minimum of one Troop AND one Hero from the matching clan

It may seem wrongly obvious that if you have a Hero of the clan you can play the Immortal, but you may have played the Hero when the corresponding Troop was face up, however now a new game state has the Troop face down so now you only have the Hero in the matching clan and can NOT play the Immortal until you also have a matching face up Troop.

Once you have played a card that adheres to the above rules, apply its effect if any

Make a Shift

The number on the left of the card is its Shift Cost

Discard cards from your hand equal to the played card's shift cost minus Activation Tokens on it to swap it out for another card from the same row

The new card does NOT have to be valid per the Play A Card rules, i.e. you do not have to have cards of the same Clan to Shift

The only restriction is that you cannot Shift a card with a card of the identical name

Resolve the new card's effect, if any

Spend Activation Tokens

You can spend activation tokens to perform ONE of the following effects:

Spend one token to draw one card

Spend two tokens to draw three cards

Place a token on a card with space for it to trigger its effect

As a reminder, at the end of each turn, you may not have more than 7 cards in hand

Pass

If you still hold Activation tokens, you may NOT take the Pass action

If you have no Activation tokens, and decide to Pass, your opponent gets 3 more turns until end of round

The Great Battle

Once one player has passed and the other has finished their third extra turn, The Great Battle commences

Each player adds up the military value of their cards (number on the right)

Each player enacts any keywords like Veteran effects

Whoever has the highest military value takes a Supremacy token

If tied, whoever holds the Wonder Token takes it, otherwise both take a Supremacy token each

If this is a player's second Supremacy token, they win!

Otherwise, continue to Song for the Dead

Song for the Dead

Release any captured cards and do not trigger their effects

Starting with the player who won the Great Battle, each player sacrifices half their cards in play, rounded up

Each player draws to a hand of 7

Each player takes back 2 activation tokens + any gained through special effects

Return the Wonder Token to the supply

Whoever lost the Great Battle is the new first player

Game End

If you hold 2 Supremacy tokens, immediately win

If you hold 5 Activation tokens, immediately win

If you have 15 face up cards, immediately win

If you're playing Goan Sul or Justice, they provide another win condition

Summarised by https://boardgamearena.com/player?id=90078516