The King Is Dead: Second Edition

Goal and factions: The board shows eight regions of Britain and followers from three factions: Scottish, Welsh, and English. Players use action cards to change where followers stand, influencing which faction controls each region. The faction with the strongest territorial position matters at the end, while court followers determine who can claim to rule for that faction. Players are not permanently assigned to a faction.

Setup: In a two-player game, remove two followers of each faction first. Put two Scottish, Welsh and English followers into their respective home regions. Bag the rest, randomly give each player two court followers, then fill every region to four followers and place the remainder in the supply. Give each player the same eight basic action cards and a negotiation disc. Shuffle the eight region cards and deal one beside each numbered position; the region order is random, not fixed by region name.

Turn choices: Turns proceed clockwise from the start player. On a turn, play one card and resolve it, or pass. A played card is discarded and cannot be used again, so each player may take no more than eight actions. Passing skips only the current opportunity; when the turn returns, the player may act or pass again. A regional struggle must occur after everyone passes in succession.

Actions and recruiting: Cards may add followers from the supply, exchange followers between regions, or change the order of unresolved region cards. After resolving an action, the active player must take one follower from any region and place it in their own court; the supply is not a legal source. This strengthens their claim to rule for that faction while reducing its presence in a region. Even a partial action is followed by recruitment.

Region struggles: Find the lowest-numbered face-up region card and compare the three factions’ followers there. The faction with the most places a control disc, then all local followers return to the supply. If the lead is tied or nobody is present, add an instability disc instead and return the followers. Flip the region card face down. Controlled or unstable regions cannot receive or move followers later.

French invasion ending: If the third instability disc is placed, the game ends immediately in a French invasion. Each player counts complete sets in their court, with one Scottish, one Welsh, and one English follower in each set. The player with the most sets wins; a tie goes to the player who most recently played an action card. In the four-player team game, combine each team’s two courts for this count.

Coronation ending: If all eight regions are resolved without an invasion, hold a coronation. The faction controlling the most regions is strongest; if factions tie, the one that most recently won a struggle is strongest. The player with the most followers of that faction in court wins. Break a tie using support for the second-strongest faction and then the player who first used all their cards. Team results follow the second-edition rules.

Advanced and team play: In the advanced game, remove each player’s three faction-support cards and secretly deal three Cunning Action Cards instead. These provide less predictable options. With four players, people opposite one another form a team, but cannot discuss strategy or reveal cards. Players still act and recruit individually; the ending determines how teammates share the result.

Strategic timing: Each card is a limited resource, so consider the next region to be resolved, the faction majority, and the followers available to recruit into a court. Recruiting can improve a player’s claim but may remove a crucial supporter from the board. Passing can delay a struggle, but a full sequence of passes forces one to happen. The instability count also shows whether an invasion is near.