Imperial

Objective and scope: Players compete as international investors to build personal wealth. Countries take the board actions, while bond ownership determines who controls each government. The base game supports 2–6 players and lasts about 120–180 minutes. This summary follows the standard rules in the 2006 Imperial rulebook and excludes Imperial 2030 and the optional version without an Investor card.

Setup: The board contains six powers: Austria-Hungary, Italy, France, Great Britain, the German Empire, and Russia. Distribute starting bonds, government flag cards, and personal cash according to player count. Bond payments go into the corresponding national treasury; the player with the highest bond total in a country receives its government flag. Under the standard rules, a player who controls no government receives a Swiss Bank marker. Place nation markers at their rondel and scoring-track starts. Austria-Hungary takes the first turn, followed by the countries in a fixed order.

Country turns and the rondel: When a country acts, its government chooses one rondel space. On its first turn, the marker may be placed on any space; later it must move clockwise and cannot remain in place. The first three spaces are free. Each of spaces four through six costs the government player 2 million from personal cash, up to a maximum movement of six spaces. Passing over Investor triggers the Investor step. Each country has its own turn; a country with no bonds and no government skips its turn.

Factory, Production, and Import: On Factory, a country may pay 5 million to build one factory. Brown cities hold armaments factories and light-blue cities hold shipyards; a home province with a hostile army cannot build. On Production, each unoccupied armaments factory creates one army and each shipyard creates one fleet for free. On Import, the national treasury pays 1 million per military unit, up to three units, which are deployed in legal home provinces. Fleets must be placed in port cities.

Maneuver and conflict: Maneuver moves fleets first, armies second, and then places flags in newly occupied regions. Fleets move to adjacent sea regions. Armies move through adjacent land regions or may be transported by the country’s fleets. Entering a region with foreign units can trigger combat under the rules; units are matched one-for-one and removed. An army entering another great power’s home province must be marked as hostile or friendly. Flags mark a nation’s influence, while hostile occupation can prevent factories from producing, building, or contributing to taxation.

Investor action: When a country lands on Investor, its treasury pays bond interest and the government addresses any shortfall. When it only passes Investor, no interest is paid; complete the landed-on action first, then perform the investor and Swiss Bank investment steps. The player holding the Investor card then takes 2 million from the bank and may buy one available bond in any country or replace an existing bond with a larger denomination, paying the difference. Eligible Swiss Bank holders may also invest. After investments, compare every player’s bond total in the affected country; the highest total receives its government and the Investor card passes clockwise.

Taxation and national power: On Taxation, calculate revenue as 2 million for each unoccupied factory plus 1 million for each national flag. Record the amount on the tax chart. If the chart position rises, the government player receives a success bonus from the bank. The tax chart also awards national power points, which are added to the country’s score track. The treasury then pays 1 million in military wages for each army and fleet; only the remaining tax revenue goes into the treasury. Taxation and power determine when the game ends and the factor applied to bond interest.

National and personal money: The six national treasuries must remain separate from players’ personal cash. A government holder administers the treasury but may not treat it as personal money or freely lend it to another country or player. Personal cash may be used for investments and rondel movement costs. Players may not give or lend money to one another or trade or transfer bonds. Personal cash may be kept secret, but the contents of national treasuries are public so that players can assess whether a country can afford its actions and interest payments.

End of game and scoring: The game ends immediately when any country reaches 25 national power points. Each player multiplies the interest shown on every bond they own by that country’s power factor, then adds their personal cash; each million is one victory point. The bond’s principal is not added again as cash: the score comes from weighted bond interest and money on hand. The richest investor wins. In a tie, compare bond totals beginning with the country that has the most power, then proceed through countries in power order until the tie is broken.