Empire is a game solo game where you conquer your enemy and defend your territory while you build castles and armies. The game works in three parts: 1. Recruit soldiers and as you draw from the deck 2. Send in those soldiers to fight as you draw enemies from the deck. 3. Stack recruited cards together to build your territories into armies and your armies into castles. The game ends when you win by building three castles or lose by entering battle without soldiers. # Setup 1. Take a standard 52 card deck shuffled with the jokers removed. 2. Found your six territories which will appear horizontally in front of you. Claim each with a soldier. Soldiers are any non-face cards A-10. Just find them from the deck and shuffle any others back in. 3. Place the deck face down behind your territories with a space to the right of it. This will be your discard pile. Note that only your left three territories can have multiple soldier cards (we'll see this later). Your right territories are restricted to one soldier card each. # Play Each turn happens by drawing a card and reacting appropriately. If there are no more cards in the deck, you can shuffle the discard pile and continue. ## If the next card is a soldier If the next card is a soldier and you do not already have six slots filled, you can recruit this soldier by placing it in front of you in your row of six.  ## If the next card is a Face Face cards (J, Q, or K) start battles. - **Jacks** are easy because they can be beat by any soldier. - Kings and Queens do not fight directly. They send in soldiers. - If the next card is a **Queen**, you must send in one of your soldiers to defeat the next card drawn. - **Kings** send in two soldiers. See the section on kings that follows. To defeat the enemy, place a card of equal or higher value on top and the battle will end.  If the enemy soldier is itself a face card or an ace, it will have the following numerical value: A=1, J=11, Q=12, K=13.  If you cannot defeat the enemy soldier, send in any soldier of your choosing.  You will lose that battle so the face card will keep sending in soldiers after you until you defeat them. This means the next card drawn will be the next round of the battle. The battle continues until you are victorious or you run out of soldiers to send in at which point you lose the game. *Note: Running out of soldiers only loses the game if you still need a soldier to send in and have none. You can use your last soldier to win the battle and keep on recruiting from zero.*  ### Kings are more brutal Kings always bring in **two** soldiers at a time. The player can choose whether they want to fight the sum of the two enemy soldiers or each soldier individually with a soldier for each. **But this decision must be made before the second enemy soldier is revealed.**   You win the battle if you beat both enemy soldiers. If not, another two-soldier battle is waged recursively until you win. ## Giving your soldiers skills Your soldiers can be given two skills. ### Soldiers can join forces Place two of your soldiers on top of each other in an "L" formation to denote they will function as one "super" soldier with the combination of their values. So a 10 and a 3 stacked this way are a soldier with a value of 13 and can win against any single card in a battle as a result.  When stacked, they collectively only count as one of your maximum six soldiers. They cannot be unstacked or have other individual soldiers added to them. Two stacks of super soldiers can be added together in a plus formation to form a batallion. Again, this can act as one soldier with their combined value but their real benefit is getting you closer to building a base. Once any black face card appears in the deck, you can swap out these four soldiers for the face card which you will place horizontally face up in its spot. The soldiers are discarded in the discard pile.  This face card can go into battle but also think of it as marking a slot with special privileges: This one lets you recruit soldiers as well as face cards in black by placing it vertically on top of your face/ace card in the form of an "L". This would now count against one of your five maximum soldiers.  Recruited cards cannot be given skills, so they sit alone on the face card. This recruited card can go into battle alone or with its recruiter but its recruiter can only battle alone if it does not already have a recruited civilian. ## Building bases To build a base, take any two recruited stacks with their face/ace card hosts (a total of four cards) and stack them together like a "+." This stack is now one card away from becoming a base once you draw a black face/ace card.   Once you get your face card in black, put the stack of four into the discard pile and place the newly drawn face/ace card **horizontally and face-down** in front of you. **Bases count for two slots**.  Your base card can be sent into battle and will beat any card or combinations of cards. It is also a marker of an slot with privileges while still counting against your five slot limit Because you now have a base, you have become so powerful, **you can recruit enemy royalty to your side**. That means each base can also recruit any card drawn (now including A, J, Q, and K and any color) to be used as a soldier. Similar to before, these recruits cannot be given skills, bases with recruits sent into battle take their civilians with them but not the other way around.  This is advantageous because it removes battle-waging kings and queens from coming up, allowing you to build your empire in peace as you build bases. **Once you have three bases with or without civilians, you win the game.**  ## Cheat sheet | Type of Slot | How You Get It | What the Slot Can Recruit | | ------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Empty | N/A | Any soldier (Ace–10) | | Super Soldier | Stack any two soldiers together | - | | Super Soldier Recruiter | Stack any two super soldiers together | - | | Native Face/Ace Card | Replace a super soldier recruiter with a drawn black face/ace card (not in battle) | Any soldier (Ace–10) or face card in black (J, Q, K in spades or clubs) | | Native Face/Ace + recruit | Combine a native face/ace card with a soldier or civilian | - | | Base Builder | Stack two native face/ace stacks, each with a recruit | - | | Base | Replace a base builder stack with a native face/ace card | Any card | | Base with Recruit | Recruit any card on top of a base | - |