Tyrants of the Underdark

Use the central map section for two players, the center plus one side for three, or the whole map for four. Shuffle two forty-card market half-decks together and reveal six cards; Drow and Dragons are recommended for a first game.

Each player starts with seven Nobles and three Soldiers, draws five cards, and deploys a first troop in a different starting site.

Interleave card plays and paid actions during your turn. Power and Influence enter a turn-specific resource pool and cannot be saved for later turns.

Basic actions cost one Power to deploy a troop, three to assassinate an enemy troop, three to return an enemy spy, or the printed Influence cost to recruit. Most map actions require local Presence.

You have Presence at a site with your spy, your troop, or an adjacent troop; route-space Presence follows troop adjacency. White unaligned troops count as enemies.

Control requires strictly more troops than any other single color at a site. Total control additionally requires every troop space to contain your troops and no enemy spies there.

When an effect lets you place a spy, choose any site without one of your spies; it does not occupy a troop space. Recruited cards enter your discard pile, and market gaps refill immediately.

Promotion effects move cards into your inner circle, outside your cycling deck. End your turn with deferred promotions, control-marker rewards, discarding, and drawing up to five cards, in that order.

Deploying a player's last reserve troop or exhausting the market deck triggers the end after the current round. Score controlled sites, two extra points per totally controlled site, one per trophy troop, deck and inner-circle card values, and VP tokens. Highest score wins; tied leaders share victory.