Gamehelpthebarracksemperors

On your turn, you may do one of the following actions:

1) Play a, INFLUENCE card from your hand to the board. It must be adjacent to your symbol on one of the Emperor cards. That is, if you are a Column Player ("North" on the board), there must be an open space above (to the "North") of the Emperor you are playing your card against. If your card has a triggered bonus, you may choose to trigger it now. If you do not, the effect is lost.

[Some cards (Quaestor, Ambitus, Castra, and Cavalry) have a passive effect, which is always on - not optional]

2a) Play a BARBARIAN card into a barbarian homeland [these are the spaces with the crossed axes] that does not already have a Barbarian in it AND IS NEXT TO AT LEAST ONE EMPEROR.

2b) Discard a Barbarian Card and then move an active Barbarian (already on the board) diagnonally to a new space ADJACENT TO AT LEAST ONE EMPEROR.. (Note, if you cannot place a barbarian on the board nor move a barbarian you may not use a barbarian card this turn).

If you can do neither of these,

3) Show all players your hand (to confirm) and then end your turn.

After this choice, check if any emperors are surrounded by cards from all four sides. [If more than one Emperor is surrounded, the active player chooses the order of resolution]

For each surrounded emperor, resolve the trick to see who wins, based on the following rules:

1) Any cards of equal value (regardless of color) are ignored (but not removed). If all 4 cards are ignored, the Emperor dies (removed from game) and no one wins the trick.

2) Of the remaining cards, the highest valued card OF THE COLOR MATCHING THE EMPEROR wins the trick.

3) If no one played a matching color card, then the highest value off-suit card wins the trick.

Unless the Emperor dies as per (1), the winning player takes the emperor card for final scoring. Each Emperor is worth 1 point.

Check to see if there are now any Barbarian or Influence cards that do not touch ANY emperor card. Remove them from the board.

If there are still surrounded Emperors, repeat this process.

Then, the active player chooses another card from the market. Which card can be taken is restricted by the value of the card played.

• If the player played a card of value 0-2, he may choose to select any card. • If the player played a card of value 3-4, he may choose to select any one of the 3 LEFTMOST cards. • If the player played a card of value 5-6, he may choose to select either of the 2 LEFTMOST cards. • If the player played a card of value 7-8, he must select the LEFTMOST card.

The Round ends when all Emperors are off the board.

Play 3 full rounds and then whoever has the most Emperor Cards wins.

THAT'S IT.

NOTE THAT ALMOST EVERY INFLUENCE CARD HAS SOME SPECIAL BONUS. THE EXPLANATION OF THESE BONUSES APPEARS BELOW.

BONUSES

Red 1-2 Reinforcements: You may place a +1 or +2 counter (as indicated) on any other Military Influence card already located anywhere on the board at the start of your turn. Therefore, you may not place the counter on the card used to generate the counter.

Red 3-4 Castra: This card, while it is in play, cannot be covered by a barbarian nor moved, flipped, removed, or modified by any special ability. However, it is still removed as required while resolving an Emperor or during end of round cleanup. In solo play only, if a barbarian would be placed on top of this card for any reason, discard the Castra and place the Barbarian card back in their holding box on the board.

Red 3-4 Cavalry: When ignoring cards with the same value while resolving an Emperor, do not ignore this card. If another Influence card’s value matches this card’s value, that other card is still ignored.

Red 5-6 Flanking Maneuver: After playing this card, you may swap it with any diagonally-adjacent Influence card. If no other Influence card is directly diagonally adjacent to this one, it cannot be swapped.

Red 5-6 Force March: You may play this card in any empty Influence card position that is adjacent to an Emperor. This means this card does not need to be played in a legal space for your faction.

Red 7-8 Praetorian Guard: You may play this card into a space that is currently occupied by an Influence card. The space must still be a space to which you can legally play. If you do, discard the already played Influence card.

Red 7-8 Spiculum: You may discard any other Influence card or Barbarian card already played on the Emperor that this card is played on. Simply remove the target card from the board and place it on the discard pile. If the Barbarian card was covering an Influence card, that Influence card is not discarded and remains in place.

Blue 1-2 Influence Peddling: You may place a +1 or +2 counter (as indicated) on any other Senate Influence card already located anywhere on the board at the start of your turn. Therefore, you may not place the counter on the card used to generate the counter.

Blue 3-4 Tribute: You may move a Barbarian card from anywhere on the board to the discard pile. If the Barbarian card was covering an Influence card, that Influence card is not discarded and remains in place. In solo play only, you instead may remove the Barbarian card that is currently placed closest to Roma (if there is one) and shuffle it back into the draw pile.

Blue 3-4 Princeps Senatus: At the end of your current turn, you may choose to draw the top card of the draw deck and add it to your hand and then also select a new card from the Forum according to normal rules. This means that you will play with an additional card in your hand for the remainder of the current round. If there are no cards remaining in the draw deck, the bonus draw is lost.

Blue 5-6 Foederati: You may play this card into a space that is currently occupied by an active Barbarian card. The space must still be a space to which you can legally play. If you do, discard the Barbarian card and any Influence card it was covering.

Blue 5-6 Frumentarii: Instead of selecting a card from the Forum at the end of your turn, you may choose to look at the top 4 cards of the draw deck and secretly select one to add to your hand. Place the cards not selected on the bottom of the draw deck in any order you choose. If there are fewer than 4 cards remaining in the draw deck, draw as many as remain.

Blue 7-8 Damnatio Memoriae: You may choose to remove from the game one Emperor card adjacent to the space in which this card is played. It does not have to be the Emperor on which you played the card. Simply remove the Emperor card from the game; no player captures the Emperor. You may even choose to target an Emperor card that was surrounded and ready to be resolved this turn.

Blue 7-8 Triumph: This card may be played in a space containing a Barbarian card. The space must still be a space to which you can legally play. The Barbarian card is placed in your scoring area. If the Barbarian card was covering an Influence card, that Influence card is discarded.

Yellow 1-2 Popularity: You may place a +1 or +2 counter (as indicated) on any other Populace Influence card already located anywhere on the board at the start of your turn. Therefore, you may not place the counter on the card used to generate the counter.

Yellow 3-4 Quaestor: When resolving any Emperor in which one or more Quaestor cards are involved, the color of the Emperor is ignored. There is no trump suit and therefore the single highest uncanceled card of any suit will capture the Emperor.

Yellow 3-4 Ambitus: When resolving any Emperor in which one or more Ambitus cards are involved, the suit of the Ambitus card is considered to be the same as the color of the Emperor. Therefore, the Ambitus card is always considered to be a trump card during Emperor resolution.

If an Ambitus card and a Quaestor card are played on the same Emperor, however, the Ambitus card is still not trump because there is no trump suit.

Yellow 5-6 Mob: Flip any other Influence card played on the same Emperor face down, discarding any counters. That card is now considered to have no suit, no text, and a value of 0. The flipped card is still an Influence card in play. It can still be targeted by Spiculum, but it cannot be targeted by modifiers or Mobile Vulgus—which target cards of a certain suit.

Yellow 5-6 Mobile Vulgus: You may discard another Populace Influence card already played anywhere on the board.

Yellow 7-8 Pretender: You may place one of the set-aside Populace Emperor cards into any unoccupied Emperor space on the board. This Emperor is now available to be won according to the usual rules during the current round. It is possible that a new card could be placed into a space that is already surrounded by 4 cards and thus would be resolved during this same player turn.

Yellow 7-8 Demagogue: For all other players’ card plays until the start of your next turn, any special abilities on Influence cards that would trigger when the card is played are ignored. Note that Barbarian cards are not Influence cards and are not affected – the ability on a Barbarian card played must still be used. The abilities on Quaestor, Ambitus, Castra, and Cavalry always still apply, since they are ongoing effects that are only checked when an Emperor is resolved. In solo play only, you may choose where rival claimants’ Influence cards are placed (instead of following the normal AI constraints).