The Rival fills the role of the second player, and its decisions are driven by its Rival Cards. Remember this Golden Rule: “The Rival wants to complete its actions to the best of its ability.” For example, if it says to recruit two units into a domain, but there is only space for one, then it will recruit only one. The structure of each round is different than a standard 2-player game:

1. Roll Your Dice: you first roll all 3 of your dice.

2. Your Turn: of your rolled dice, place 1 die onto the Action Mat.

3. Rival Turn: roll 1 of the Rival’s dice and draw 1 Rival Card. Place the die on the Action Mat’s Rival Slot and resolve its action based on the card (see below) and the die. Afterward, you may follow the die, but not the card action.

4. Your Turn: repeat of step #2.

5. Rival Turn: repeat of step #3.

6. Checking Alliances, Collect Taxes, and Dice Cleanup (see Checking Alliances... (Step 6)).

You and Rival continue taking turns, each gaining victory points from winning battles and Scoring Phases until after round 6, the Score Track determines the winner.

Your Turns: Steps 2 & 4

You always take the first turn of the round, selecting 1 die from the 3 dice you rolled. You may use Hero and Alliance Abilities to change the faces of your dice. As normal, when you place a die on an Action Mat’s slot, you may perform its Optional Action. However in later rounds, two slots are covered with coins which dice cannot be placed on (see Checking Alliances... (Step 6)). For your second action, choose a die from the 2 remaining dice. The third die is not used. The Rival never follows your actions.

Rival Turns: Steps 3 & 5

Do two things to start each Rival Turn:

1. Roll one of its dice and place it in the leftmost Rival Action Slot at the bottom of the Action Mat.

2. Draw and reveal a Rival Card from the deck (discard the previous card to the game box if there is one).