You play a Hero () leading a party across the realm: recruiting Citizens (), raising Structures (), gathering Supplies () and completing Region Quests, all to earn Recognition (). Most Recognition at the end wins.

Over the game you draft cards from a shared Market, place Citizens and Structures into the five Regions, and clash with your opponents through Tactics () and Contest Damage (). Region presence, deck management and timing are what the game rewards.

1.1 Components §

• 5 Region cards. Laid in a line between the players, Quest-side up, with the Market at one end. Each Region holds one Stack per player, built out from that player’s side. A Region flips to its Reward side when its Quest is completed.
• Hero cards, one per player. Each Hero carries a five-step Skill Tree plus a Level 0 step, and a unique starting deck of 8 cards marked with that Hero’s portrait in the corner.
• Pocket Cards. Each player starts with one Goods card face down in their Pocket. The Pocket is private, holds one card by default, and is where purchases land.
• Six standing Market piles, always available and never shuffled: Goods () (cost 0), Aim (1), Silver (2), Worker (3), Shop (4) and Recognition () (5). Ten Recognition are in play, and they are the game’s clock.
• The Market Deck of roughly 40 cards, shuffled face down beside the standing piles, feeding the four Market Piles.
• The Market Discard. A shared face-up pile where Trashed cards go. They return to circulation when the Market Deck is reshuffled.

1.2 Object of the game §

Earn the most Recognition by the time the game ends. Recognition comes from four places, counted in full at §9:

• Recognition cards you own, wherever they sit.
• Each Region you have a card in.
• Each Region you control.
• Each checkered-flag ability exposed at the back of one of your Stacks.

Worth reading once before a first game. Everything here is used with a capital letter throughout.

Region

One of the five location cards between the players. Each holds one Stack per player and prints a Quest and the phase that Quest is checked in.

Stack

The cards you have placed at one Region, laid sideways and overlapping outward. Citizens, Structures and Tactics all go into Stacks.

Exposed

The last card placed on a Stack. Only an exposed card’s Stack abilities work — unless the ability is printed in a white box, which is never covered.

Hero and Level ()

Your character card and its Skill Tree. Your Level equals the number of Regions you have at least one card in, recounted during Clean Up, from 0 to 5.

Pocket

Your private face-down store, and where purchases land. It holds one card plus any increase granted by cards in play, and at least one card must stay in it.

Goods ()

The currency. Cards print a Goods value; that value is what they can pay with. Goods produced by abilities sit in your bank for the rest of the Purchase phase.

Supplies ()

The card category that pays: Goods, Silver and anything else marked Supplies. Supplies are never placed in Stacks.

Citizen ()

A body with Damage and Health, placed in the Position phase. Workers are Citizens.

Structure ()

Placed in the Position phase alongside Citizens. Harder to destroy, and most carry an ability that keeps working while exposed.

Tactic ()

Placed in the Contest phase only. Its Damage counts for that Contest, its Shields act as Health, and every Tactic is discarded during Clean Up.

Recognition ()

The score, and the clock. Costs 5, does nothing in play, and each card is worth a point. Ten are in the Market; when the pile empties the game is ending.

Quest and control

Meet a Region’s Quest during the phase named on it and the Region card flips to the front of your Stack. You control it until your Stack there is empty at Clean Up.

Priority Player

Acts first in every phase of a turn. Decided by a high roll on the first turn, then alternating each turn.

Trash and Discard ()

A Trashed card leaves your deck for the Market Discard or its standing pile. A Discarded card goes to your own Discard and cycles back when you reshuffle.

Two to four players. Allow about five minutes.

1. Lay out the Regions. The five Region cards in a row, Quest-side up, with the Market at one end. Leave each player clear space on their own side of every Region for their Stack.
2. Choose Heroes. Randomly, by draft or by agreement. Take the 8 cards marked with your Hero’s portrait, shuffle them, and place your Hero card at the far left of your play area, with your Deck face down at the far right and room for a Discard beside it. Everyone starts at Level 0 with an empty hand.
3. Take a Pocket Card. Each player takes one Goods card from the Goods pile and places it face down and sideways across their Hero card as their Pocket Card, where it marks their Level. Only you may look at it.
4. Set the standing piles. Goods 0, Aim 1, Silver 2, Worker 3, Shop 4, Recognition 5, in cost order beside the Market. Ten Recognition are in play.
5. Shuffle the Market Deck and flip one card face up onto each of the four Market Piles.
6. Decide Priority. Highest roll of one die takes Priority on the first turn, re-rolling ties. Priority then alternates every turn.

Opponent

Discard

Deck

Hero

Pocket

Their Stack

Their Stack

Their Stack

Their Stack

Their Stack

Gig Harbour

Atos

Mangan’s Landing

Ios

Pinehurst

Your Stack

Your Stack

Your Stack

Your Stack

Your Stack

You

Hero

Pocket

Deck

Discard

Market

Mkt Discard

Goods 0

Mkt Deck

Aim 1

Pile 1

Silver 2

Pile 2

Worker 3

Pile 3

Shop 4

Pile 4

Recog. 5

Four phases, then Damage & Clean Up. Both players complete a phase before either starts the next, and within a phase the Priority Player acts first. You never sit through a whole opponent turn.

1 Hero

Skill Tree, then Stack abilities.

2 Purchase

Spend Goods on Market cards.

3 Position

Place Citizens and Structures.

4 Contest

Play Tactics, then fight.

4.1 Hero phase §

• Resolve your Skill Tree in order, from Level 0 up to your current Level. Level 0 always draws 4 cards. A step you have not reached does nothing.
• Each Region you control pays you one Recognition card from the Market onto the top of your Deck, worked from the Region nearest the Market outward.
• Then resolve the Hero abilities on cards in your Stacks. An ability only fires if it is exposed, or printed in a white box.
• Move any number of cards between your Pocket and your Hand.
• Hero Quests are checked in this phase.

Draw effects are written “+N”. If your Deck runs out mid-draw, shuffle your Discard into a new Deck and keep drawing.

4.2 Purchase phase §

• Buy any number of cards, including none, from the six standing piles or from the top of any of the four Market Piles. Buying the top card of a Market Pile exposes the one beneath it.
• Cost is paid with the Goods value printed on cards in your Hand, and with any Goods an ability has put in your bank. Overpayment stays available for the rest of the phase.
• Purchase abilities on exposed cards, and “Discard me” abilities from your Hand, may be used here.
• Purchased cards go to your Pocket. Before the phase ends, move any of them into your Hand.
• Your Pocket holds one card plus any increase granted by cards in play. At least one card must stay in it, face down. Capacity is checked only at the end of this phase.
• Purchase Quests are checked in this phase.

4.3 Position phase §

• Resolve any exposed Position abilities in your Stacks.
• Place any number of Citizens and Structures from your Hand into your Stacks, divided across the five Regions as you like.
• Lay each card sideways so its combat box reads upright. The new card covers the ability boxes of the card in front of it and becomes the exposed card; the covered card’s combat box stays in play.
• A Reveal ability fires as the card is placed, and again whenever it becomes exposed after being covered.
• Placement is final. A placed card cannot return to your Hand.

4.4 Contest phase §

• In Priority order, place Tactics sideways onto your Stacks or use their “Discard me” abilities from your Hand.
• A Tactic’s Damage counts toward that Region for this Contest only. Its Shields () are its Health, and they absorb damage for the cards behind it.
• Contest Quests are checked in this phase.
• When both players have finished, the turn moves to Damage & Clean Up. No damage is dealt until then.

4.5 Damage & Clean Up §

Neither player acts. Resolve one Region at a time, starting nearest the Market.

1. Each Stack deals its total Damage to the opposing Stack, front card first.
2. Discard every destroyed card and every Tactic from both Stacks, all at once.
3. Reset any Region whose holder has no cards left in that Stack.
4. Recount every Hero Level.
5. Refill each Market Pile to one face-up card.
6. Discard all Hands.
7. Check the Recognition pile. If it is empty, the game ends (§9).

Reveal Triggers between steps 2 and 3. Removing a Citizen, Structure or Tactic can expose a Reveal ability on a card left in the Stack. Each player resolves their Reveal Triggers as they arise, before Damage is dealt in the next Region. If both players Trigger a Reveal in the same Region, the Priority Player resolves theirs first. If that Reveal destroys the other player's Triggered card, the other player still resolves their Reveal.

5.1 Presence and control §

Two different things, and both score.

• Presence is having at least one card in your Stack at a Region. It sets your Hero Level and scores a point per Region at the end.
• Control is taken by completing that Region’s Quest, which flips the Region card to the front of your Stack. You hold it until your Stack there is empty at Clean Up, at which point the Region resets and is open again.

Controlling a Region does not keep your opponent out of it. They can build in the same Region, and emptying your Stack there is how they take it off you.

5.2 Hero Levels §

Your Level equals the number of Regions you have at least one card in, from 0 to 5. It is recounted during Clean Up and stands for the whole of the next turn. Both players can be on the same Level.

Every Hero shares the shape of the ladder: Level 0 draws 4 cards and always fires, the middle steps differ by Hero, and the higher steps are what make a wide board worth holding. Your own Skill Tree is printed on your Hero card, greyed out above your current Level. Reaching Level 5 does not end the game.

5.3 Stacks §

• Citizens, Structures and Tactics go into Stacks. Supplies never do — they are played from your Hand and go to your Discard.
• Cards enter sideways, one at a time, extending outward from the Region. The first card placed is at the front; each new card goes behind it and becomes the exposed card.
• A Stack ability works only while its card is exposed, unless it is printed in a white box, which is never covered.
• Combat boxes are never covered. You can always read the Damage and Health of every card in a Stack.
• There is no Stack size limit. Cards leave a Stack only when destroyed, moved or discarded by an effect, and Tactics leave every Clean Up.
• If a covering card is removed, the card beneath is exposed again and its abilities come back on — including Reveal, which fires again.

5.4 Region Quests §

Every Region prints a Quest and the phase it is checked in. A Quest is completed when all three of these are true at once: it is the phase named on the Quest, you have at least one card in your Stack there, and you meet the Quest’s condition. You do not need to control the Region to complete its Quest.

On completion the Region card flips and joins the front of your Stack as an ordinary Stack card. From your next Hero phase onward it pays you one Recognition onto the top of your Deck each turn you still hold it. If both players meet a Quest in the same phase, the Priority Player takes it.

A Region resets when the holder’s Stack there is emptied at Clean Up, and can then be claimed again by whoever next meets the Quest.

6.1 Reading a card §

• The icon in the top-left corner is the card’s type: Supplies, Citizen, Structure, Tactic or Recognition.
• The badge in the top-right is its cost, paid in Goods.
• The white combat box carries Damage () on the left and Health () on the right. The Health icon differs by type — a heart for Citizens, a structure mark for Structures, shields for Tactics — but all work the same way.
• Ability boxes are tinted by the phase they fire in. A Hero portrait in the corner marks a card from that Hero’s starting deck.
• Once a card is covered in a Stack, its tinted ability boxes are inactive. Its combat box, and any ability in a white box, keep working.

6.2 Five card types §

Supplies. Money. You pay with the Goods value printed on the card.

Citizens. Bodies with Damage and Health. A Citizen holds a Region.

Structures. Harder to destroy than Citizens, and most carry an ability.

Tactics. Contest phase only. Their Shields absorb damage for the cards behind them, and all are discarded during Clean Up.

Recognition. Costs 5 and does nothing in play. Each one is a point.

6.3 Where an ability is used from §

• Hand abilities are used by playing the card out of your Hand. A “Discard me” ability sends it to your Discard; a Trash ability sends it to the Market Discard instead, so it leaves your deck for good.
• Stack abilities work on the board, while the card is exposed — or always, if the ability sits in a white box.
• A card can carry both. Only the abilities readable in its current position are available, and where two Hand abilities are joined by “or” you take one.

6.4 Ability marks §

Reveal. Fires when the ability becomes visible: as the card is played, and again each time it is uncovered after being covered.

Finish, the checkered flag. Scores when the game ends, and only if the card is exposed at the back of its Stack — or the ability is in a white box.

Trash. The card leaves the game or returns to its standing pile rather than going to your Discard.

White box. A Stack ability that is never covered. It keeps working wherever the card sits, so you can build on top of it.

May. Optional. An ability without “may” resolves if it can.

Requirements. Some abilities ask for a count before they work — cards of a type across your Stacks, Goods in your bank, cards in Hand. If the count is not met, the ability does nothing.

6.5 The icons §

Goods. What you pay with.

Restricted Goods. Each pays only toward the card type it shows: Supplies, Citizens, Structures, Tactics or Recognition.

Trash for Goods. Trash the card out of your Hand and the Goods go to your bank for this phase.

Damage. Dealt to the opposing Stack.

Health. Damage this high destroys the card.

Shields. A Tactic’s Health.

Reveal. Fires each time the ability becomes visible.

Finish. Scores at the end, if exposed.

Trash. The card leaves your deck.

Draw. +1 draws a card, +2 draws two.

Recognition. A point, and the game’s clock.

7.1 Contest Damage §

• Total the Damage on every card in your Stack, Tactics included.
• Assign it to the opposing Stack front to back, the front card being the one nearest the Region.
• A card is destroyed when the damage assigned to it equals or exceeds its Health. Excess damage carries on to the next card behind, through Citizens, Structures and Tactics alike, until it runs out or the Stack is empty.
• Both Stacks resolve at once. There is no first strike, and a destroyed card still deals its damage in the same exchange.
• Damage that has nothing left to hit is ignored. Regions themselves cannot be damaged, and nothing carries over to another Region.
• Damage does not persist. Survivors are whole again next turn.

7.2 Non-Contest damage §

Some cards deal damage outside the Contest exchange — Aim when it is Trashed, or an ability that strikes a named card. That damage is applied immediately to the card it names, and it destroys that card if it meets its Health. It does not carry over to the card behind.

7.3 A worked exchange §

Seamus and Finn both have Stacks at Pinehurst and at the Kingdom of Atos.

1Setup

Seamus

Lyla 01

Izzy & Bren 12

Deals 0

Pinehurst

Deals 0

Cassian 22

Ja’Rae 11

Finn

Front cards sit nearest the Region.

2Total the Damage

Seamus

Lyla 01

Izzy & Bren 12

Deals 1

Pinehurst

Deals 3

Cassian 22

Ja’Rae 11

Finn

Seamus deals 1. Finn deals 2 + 1 = 3.

3Assign front to back

Seamus

Lyla 01−1

Izzy & Bren 12−2

Deals 0

Pinehurst

Deals 0

Cassian 22−1

Ja’Rae 11

Finn

Finn’s 3 destroys Izzy & Bren, and 1 carries to Lyla. Seamus’s 1 is not enough for Cassian.

4Result

Seamus

Empty

Deals 0

Pinehurst

Deals 0

Cassian 22

Ja’Rae 11

Finn

Seamus’s Stack is empty. Finn’s Stack is whole again.

• Finn’s 3 hits Izzy & Bren (2 Health) and destroys them; the spare 1 carries to Lyla (1 Health) and destroys her too. Seamus’s Stack is empty.
• Seamus’s 1 hits Cassian (2 Health) and is not enough. Nothing carries over, so Ja’Rae is untouched.
• At the Kingdom of Atos, Seamus’s Jarl (1 Damage, 2 Health) faces Finn’s lone Worker (1 Damage, 1 Health). Jarl survives; the Worker is destroyed.

At Clean Up, Pinehurst resets for Seamus and the Kingdom of Atos resets for Finn: neither has a card left there. Seamus drops a Level for losing his presence at Pinehurst, and Finn drops one for Atos.

8.1 Your Deck §

You start with your Hero’s 8 cards. Everything you play, spend or lose on a Stack goes to your Discard. When your Deck runs out, shuffle the Discard into a new Deck and carry on — every card you own comes back around, which is why thinning matters.

8.2 Trash §

A Trashed card leaves your deck. Cards from a standing pile go back to that pile; everything else goes face up to the Market Discard beside the Market Deck, and returns to circulation at the next reshuffle. Trashing is not the same as Discarding, which keeps the card in your own cycle.

8.3 The Market §

• Six standing piles, never exhausted except Recognition, in cost order: Goods 0, Aim 1, Silver 2, Worker 3, Shop 4, Recognition 5.
• Four Market Piles, each topped with one fresh card from the Market Deck during every Clean Up, covering whatever nobody bought. Only the top card of a pile is for sale; buying it exposes the next.
• If the Market Deck runs out, shuffle the Market Discard to make a new one.
• Recognition is the exception that matters: when its ten cards are gone, the pile stays empty and the game is ending.

8.4 Paying §

Cost is paid in Goods. A card in your Hand pays the Goods value printed above it, and abilities can add Goods to your bank for the rest of the phase. Some cards pay more toward a particular kind of purchase, so the value shown can change with what you are buying. Anything you overpay stays available until the phase ends; unspent Goods cards in your Hand are discarded at Clean Up like everything else.

9.1 The end condition §

The Recognition pile is the clock. When it is empty, finish the current turn and then score. The players set the pace: rushing Recognition ends the game early and hands over the tempo, ignoring it hands over the win.

9.2 Scoring §

Most points wins. If two or more players are level, go to the tiebreakers.

9.3 Tiebreakers §

If two or more players are tied on total Recognition, apply the following tiebreakers in order. Move to the next tiebreaker only if the preceding one does not resolve the tie.

If all four are level, the game is a tie.