The Realm is a matrix of 400 cells (20 x 20), comprised of 9 villages and 8 unclaimed natural resources.
The villages within the Realm have maintained sustainability in their respective territories, with no need for conflict over resources.
At the centre of the Realm is the original & largest village 'Mira', which occupies a territory of 100 cells (10 x 10). Mira grew much larger in population than the other territories.
The other 8 villages within the Realm have much smaller populations; which prevents them from occupying any of the unclaimed resources.
There are 8 unclaimed resources, two of each; Water Spring, Timber Forest, Stone Quarry & Iron Ore Mine.
Mira has grown too large and is close to exhausting all of the resources of its territory; the population cannot be sustained.
The population of Mira has split opinions on the future; either proceed to claim all of the resources within the Realm for themselves and dominate, or claim & share the resources through friendly alliances with the other villages.
Diplomatically, the population of Mira agrees to peacefully separate into 2; becoming the populations of the 2 players of the game.
Starting with Player 1, each player's first move is to place a gametile on only one of the 8 roads leading out of Mira.
The white bars on the gametile indicate the direction of the road. Gametiles are placed adjacent to each other so the white lines align and retain a consistent road.
There are 3 types of gametile; straight, corner & T-piece. Gametiles can be rotated by clicking on them whilst on The Deck.
After placing a gametile, players end their current turn and activate their opponents next turn by clicking on their own respective icon in the Game Console.
Each alternating set of player turns counts as a month in the timeline of the game, indicated by the calendar in the Game Console. In the timeline of the Realm, 6 months constitutes a year.
After each player has placed their first gametile, they continue to alternate turns by placing more gametiles adjacent to their own previously played gametiles; creating a road.
Gametiles are randomly drawn, but players should have the intention of trying to create the shortest road possible to resources & villages.
After each player has placed 3 gametiles, they are able to settle their new Main Village. To activate this, they click on their own respective icon next to their name.
Settling a new main village rewards the player with 20 points.
When a player places a gametile that is adjacent to either a resource or village, and the orientation of the gametile aligns correctly, that player is entitled to claim it.
Claiming a resource requires that the player dedicates some of their population to the resource to ensure they can continue to benefit.
Creating an alliance with a village can be formed either passively or with hostility.
A passive alliance is guaranteed, scores less points initially and requires giving away hunters, but provides bonus points annually throughout the game.
Hostile alliances are a game of chance and score more points initially, but the player risks a chosen number of hunters in a dice roll. No subsequent annual bonus points are awarded for hostile alliances.
The game continues of alternating turns until all of the 8 resources have been claimed, and alliances created with all of the 8 villages. The player with the most points wins.
Each player's starting population consists of 2 Officials, 10 Hunters, 8 Engineers and 40 general population Villagers, for a total of 60. As the game progresses, players use their population when interacting with resources and villages. Therefore, players' populations will fluctuate throughout the game and potentially be vastly different by the end of the game.
The objective of the game is to score as many points as possible until the games ends.
The primary method of scoring points is building roads. Each turn requires the Active player to place the randomly generated gametile sitting on The Deck. Players score 1 point for placing a straight tile, 2 points for placing a corner tile and 3 points for placing a T-piece.
The secondary way to score points is from the players interactions with resources and villages. When a players claims a resource or forms an alliance with a village, they receive points.
The complexity of the resource determines how many points the player receives. Timber Forests & Water Springs reward 15 points, Stone Quarries reward 20 points and Iron Ore Mines reward 25 points.
Smaller village populations reward players with 20 points for Passive Alliances and 40 points for Hostile Alliances. Larger village populations reward players with 30 points for Passive Alliances and 60 points for Hostile Alliances.
Passive Alliances also reward players with an Annual Bonus of either 8 or 12 points (depending on village population) on the anniversary of their alliance. This is where the incentive for Passive Alliances kicks in; the longer the game takes to complete and the more Passive Alliances a player makes, the more bonus points a players receives. There are no annual bonus points for Hostile Alliances, but they provide double the reward points than Passive Alliances.
Players should be aware that population management is very important throughout the game. When a player interacts with a resource or village, they need to ensure they have an appropriate amount of each segment of their population.
Players can manage their population after they place their new Main Village. This can be done after a player has placed 3 gametiles. Settling a Main Village rewards a player with 20 points. The new Main Village can be thought of as your village headquarters. The Main Village is also a 4-way gametile, which allows a player to now make a road in any of the 3 available directions.
Once a player has placed their Main Village into the Realm, they are able to click on it at any time to manage their population. Players are able to promote general Villagers into Engineer and Hunter roles with the '+' button.
Its important not to promote too many unnecessary Hunters and Engineers at once, as this will deplete your general Villagers population. A depleted general population is unable to maintain the Main Village as effectively, and general population growth halts. If a player is able to maintain their Villagers population at least 70% (28) of their starting population at the start of each new year, they receive a population boost of 7.5%.
Interactions with the resources and villages require players to leave behind members of their population.
In the case of resources, and depending on their complexity, players will need to leave behind a combination of their Hunters, Engineers and Villagers. A players Engineers are the ones who will act upon the resource, who require the support of Hunters to provide them food, and Villagers to maintain a small camp.
Players receive an annual population bonus on the anniversary of claiming the resource. The number of the population reward is also determined by the complexity of the resource.
The objective of the Passive Alliance is to build a prosperous long-term relationship with the village to provide more bonus points to the player. Initially a player will gift the other village with a peace offering of a number of their Hunters. The number of Hunters gifted to a village will match the number of hunters that village currently has. This gifting of Hunters now allows that village to grow because they have more capable hunters to provide more nutrition for the village. Passive Alliance villages also receive a small annual population boost for each of the resources a player has. At the end of the game, players will also receive a bonus for the total population growth across all of their Passive Alliances.
Alternatively, the Hostile Alliance is a game of chance for the opportunity to score more points initially, but doesn't create any long-term bonus opportunities.
When attempting a Hostile Alliance, a player is allowed to select up to 1 less than their opponents number of hunters. The more hunters a player is willing to gamble, the greater their chances are in a dice roll game. If a player is successful, they retain all of their gambled hunters, and decimate their opponents to just 1 hunter.