Ankh: Gods of Egypt

Setup and objective: Each player chooses an available god and takes its dashboard, god figure, six Warriors, Ankh tokens, Battle cards, and player aid. Place figures, monuments, conflict-order tokens, and other pieces according to a compatible scenario. Each player starts with one Follower; choose Guardian cards and available figures by player count. Set devotion order, the four action markers, and the Event marker as directed. The Scenario Booklet controls the exact map setup, so do not treat one scenario’s starting positions as universal. A god that reaches the top of the Devotion track wins immediately.

Turn and action tracks: Choose Move Figures, Summon Figure, Gain Followers or Unlock Ankh Power, slide its marker one space right and resolve the action fully. Reaching the last space triggers an event: finish the action, advance and resolve the event, reset the action marker and end the turn. If the first action triggers no event, a second action from a lower row is mandatory; move its marker even if its effect cannot be resolved. A single action is used when the first triggers an event, the first is Unlock Ankh Power with no lower row, or the player is Merged. The same action cannot be chosen twice in one turn.

Actions and events are mandatory when possible: CMON’s FAQ says that a player must carry out an action or event when its legal benefit can be taken. If the selected action cannot produce an effect because a required condition is missing, the player may still advance its marker without gaining the benefit. For example, a player who cannot pay the Follower cost to unlock a power gets no power, while a legal benefit cannot be declined simply to avoid the event track. God abilities, Ankh powers, and card text may define specific exceptions.

Move, summon, and gain Followers: The Move action lets the player move each of their figures up to three spaces, ending in an empty non-Water space; passing through pieces and determining adjacency are separate questions. Summon places one Warrior or controlled Guardian from the player’s pool on an empty non-Water space adjacent to one of their figures or a monument they control in the same region. Gain Followers gives one Follower for each neutral or player-controlled monument adjacent to any of their figures. An opponent-controlled monument does not count, and a controlled monument without an adjacent friendly figure does not count.

Unlock powers: Ankh powers have three levels, with costs of one, two, or three Followers. On each unlock, move the currently available Ankh token to a power in that level. The required lower-level powers must be unlocked before advancing to a higher level. Only unlocked powers can be used. Some power symbols grant a Guardian of the matching level if a figure and suitable base remain available. Spent Followers return to the general supply; they are not both spent and retained in the player’s pool.

Events: When an action marker reaches the end of its track, advance the central Event marker and resolve the indicated event. A Control Monument event normally lets the triggering player claim an adjacent neutral monument; only after no neutral monuments remain may they replace an opponent’s control token, and adjacency is still required. A Camel Caravan places a line of up to six camels to split a region; both resulting regions must contain at least six land spaces, with Water excluded. Camels change region boundaries and adjacency, and the event also assigns Conflict Order tokens.

Conflict and monument scoring: A global Conflict resolves regions from the lowest to highest Conflict Order number. Ignore a region with no figures. If figures from only one god are present, that god dominates and receives the applicable devotion reward and monument-majority rewards. A battle occurs only when at least two gods each have a figure in the region. Obelisks, Temples, and Pyramids are checked as separate monument types. The majority holder must also have a figure in the region; the official FAQ says that a second-place god does not inherit the reward if the actual majority holder is absent. A tied count creates no majority reward.

Battle: Each eligible god secretly selects an available Battle card and reveals it simultaneously. Resolve the card and conflict steps, including Build Monument and Plague of Locusts when applicable, then monument majorities and total strength. Each figure has one base strength; powers, god abilities, Guardians, and Battle cards may change it. The highest strength wins devotion and removes opposing Warriors and Guardians, never God figures. At a tie, the player who triggered the Conflict may use the tiebreaker token to win one tied battle during that Conflict. A god with no figure in a region has zero strength and cannot win from a card bonus alone. If no tie is broken, Warriors and Guardians subject to elimination are removed, with God figures and applicable protection effects respected; nobody wins the battle.

Merge, forgetting, and victory: In games with at least three players, after the third Conflict the two gods lowest on the Devotion track merge. The higher-ranked of those two remains the shared god; both players keep their original seat order and each takes one action on their own turn, sharing specified figures and resources. A merge does not create consecutive turns or make one Ankh power resolve twice. After the fourth Conflict, gods still in the red area are forgotten and removed: one remaining god wins, while all gods forgotten means nobody wins. If the game has not ended earlier, resolve the final event and the highest Devotion wins.