Imperium: Classics

Objective and civilizations: Each player selects a Classics civilization, manages its starting deck and state, and gradually changes its card cycle while seeking more victory points than the opponents. The eight choices are Carthaginian, Celt, Greek, Macedonian, Persian, Roman, Scythian, and Viking. Each has its own cards and rules that alter its strategy; do not assume every civilization follows the same upgrade path.

Setup and shared market: Take the chosen civilization’s deck, ability cards, and state board, then build the public market and Unrest pile according to player count. Each player begins with five cards in hand. The region, uncivilised and civilised decks each use six cards with two players, seven with three, or eight with four; the fame deck has its own player-count reduction. Place the specified cards and resources in the shared area, and follow the chosen civilization’s setup table for its starting state.

Choose one main action per turn: Players take turns clockwise. On a turn, choose one of Activate, Innovate, or Revolt. Activate lets the player use cards from hand according to the action resources and card text, place cards in the appropriate areas, or trigger available Exhaust abilities on deployed cards. Pay the costs shown by the card or state board. Ordinary actions and Exhaust abilities may be sequenced as permitted, subject to timing and resource limits. Normally, Activate starts with three action tokens and five Exhaust tokens. Playing a normal card costs an action token; using an Exhaust ability spends its separate token, subject to extra-action and free-play effects.

Innovate and Revolt: Innovate discards the entire hand, then performs one Break Through for a permitted suit as defined in the main rules; this is distinct from developing a Development card. Revolt returns any number of Unrest cards from hand to the Unrest pile. Each is an alternative to Activate, so the player cannot also take ordinary Activate actions or use Exhaust abilities that turn. Innovate can reshape a hand and advance the state; Revolt can remove unwanted cards, but also changes the position of the Unrest pile.

Cleanup and Solstice: After the selected action, resolve Clean Up, handle used cards and state, adjust the market, and draw back to five cards. If the draw pile is exhausted, follow the main rules for the civilization’s Nation or Development cards before reshuffling its discard pile. After every player has taken a turn in the round, resolve Solstice effects from the current season, civilization, and cards, then begin the next round. Resolve each printed effect rather than assuming all civilizations share one result.

Deck circulation and development: Players change their civilization through drawing, deploying, acquiring, and developing cards. An empty draw pile does not itself cause defeat: the rules may require the player to process a Nation or Development card according to the current state, then shuffle the discard pile into a new deck. Card locations and availability affect later Activate actions and resource planning. Civilization-specific development rules vary and must be followed instead of applying one universal engine formula.

Multiplayer ending and score: A normal ending can be triggered by the shared main deck running out, the last Development card being developed, a specific civilization card condition, or King of Kings. In the normal sequence, finish the current round and play a final round, then score VP from the player’s areas, hand, deck, discard, History area, and card text. The highest VP total wins, with a shared victory on a tie. Follow the triggering card and main rulebook for the exact condition.

Unrest and Collapse: If the Unrest pile runs out, Collapse triggers immediately instead of the usual round completion and VP procedure. Compare the number of Unrest cards in each player’s hand, play area, draw deck, discard pile, and History; the fewest Unrest cards wins. If players tie on card count, proceed to scoring as specified by the rules. Managing Unrest can therefore affect whether a game ends through development or social collapse.

Solo bot: The official Solo Rulebook adds an automated opponent. In each round, the human player takes a turn first, the bot acts next, and Solstice follows. The bot rolls to determine which face-down card in its action sequence is skipped or removed, then executes cards from the lowest-numbered position using its civilization’s reference table. It does not play and interpret cards as a human would. All eight Classics civilizations can be used by the player or bot.

Solo victory, difficulty, and campaign: Solo uses the main ending framework but changes the comparison: the player must score more than the bot to win, and a tie goes to the bot. Collapse is an immediate player loss. Five difficulty levels, from Chieftain to Overlord, adjust the bot’s action count and starting resources. Campaign Mode links multiple solo games; win five games to complete it, while four accumulated losses end the campaign.