The Great Wall
1. Starting with the left wall section, all Archers in firing
TURN SUMMARY
Skip Spring and Summer in Year 1.
Spring – Horde appears
1. Advance the time track.
2. Place the number of Horde cards shown above the
Time token, filling any empty wall sections from left to
right.
If all the first rows are filled, place the next Horde card
according to the indicator on the back of the Horde
card on the top of the deck (not the one just drawn). If you
can’t place a card because all the slots are full, remove a
number of Shame tokens from the pool equal to the
number of players (Raid).
3. Discard the 2 leftmost Advisor cards, slide the
remaining 2 left than add 2 new ones.
Summer – Mobilise
1. Receive overseer income.
2. Pay to discard Shame if you want to (2 Chi per token).
3. Discard all Command cards on the Command track.
4. In Tea order, either reclaim all Command cards in your
discard pile or get 2 Honor for each card you leave in the
discard pile.
Autumn – Give commands
1. All players choose a Command card and play it face
down.
2. Reveal all cards. In Tea order, place your Command
card in any slot on the Command track.
3. Resolve first Command card in the track in this order:
- resolve all card effects from the top of the card to
the bottom (1st and 3rd effects are the active player
only, 2nd effect is all the other players)
- activate all Regular locations whose red spots are
fully-occupied, and any Special locations with at least
1 clerk on the green spot - the active player chooses
the order in which to activate each location.
Activate each location in Tea order
- after activating each location return all clerks at
that location to each player’s pool
- defeat Horde cards with all Vital spots covered.
4. Resolve the next Command card.
Winter – Horde assaults
spots on walls attack Horde cards in their section in
Tea order.
2. Defeat Horde cards with all Vital spots covered (see
Defeating Horde cards).
3. For any undefeated Horde cards, determine attack vs
defence: total the Offensive Power of all the Horde
cards in the section (including special abilities), and add
compare with the Wall Defence (+2 for each barricade
in the section).
4. If Offensive Power > Defence the wall is breached (see
Breaches), otherwise nothing happens.
5. Discard all Barricades in the section.
6. Check for end of game: 3 wall sections at maximum (or
2 at maximum in a 3-player game), Shame pool empty
or time has run out.
GAME END
The game ends at the end of Winter if all 3 wall sections (2 in
3-player games) are at maximum height, the Shame pool is
empty or time has run out. Final Honor: subtract 5 for each
Shame token under your soldiers, add the bonus for each
claimed Horde card with no Shame tokens, add points for
Artifacts. In a draw, Tea order determines the winner.
ACTIVATING LOCATIONS
• Regular locations have small red spots, Special locations
have big green spots.
• You can only activate a Regular location when all of its
red spots are filled (unless you’re doing an Advanced
Activation).
• You can’t move a clerk out of a Regular location once all
its spots are filled.
• When moving clerks in another player’s turn you can’t
move 2 clerks to the same location (card should read
‘Move up to 2 clerks to any 2 different locations’).
• The active player decides the order in which to activate
each location. Each player activates all of their clerks in
that location in Tea order (except in the Emperor’s
Embassy, where each player activates their clerks
individually).
• If you’re the only player with a clerk in a location with a
Shame flag, take a Shame token when you activate it
(unless it’s an Advanced Activation).
Advanced activations – no Shame
If a Command card, Advisor card or other ability enables an
Advanced Activation you can activate:
• a Regular location (red spots) without having to fill all the
spots (even with one clerk), or
• a Special location.
If you would normally receive a Shame flag for being the
only player with a clerk activating a location (Production
Locations and the Barracks), you don’t receive it.
LOCATIONS
Lumber mill, quarry, gold mine & temple
When you activate the lumber mill, quarry, gold mine or
temple, do this in Tea order:
1. Get resources (1 per clerk, +1 per overseer level)
2. Optionally pay to upgrade overseers in that location to
the next level (or place an overseer if you haven’t yet)
3. Optionally donate a resource to the Warehouse and get
2 Honor per resource (max 1 resource per location, and
you can’t donate Chi from the Temple)
4. Return your clerks to your pool.
You can only have one overseer per location, and once
placed they can’t be moved (except to the right by being
upgraded) and aren’t available as soldiers.
Shame: If you’re the only player with a clerk or clerks in the
location, take a Shame token.
Tea House – change the initiative
If you place a clerk here, move your Tea marker up one level
in the stack when the location activates. If you fill both the
slots, move your Tea marker to the top of the pile.
Builder’s camp – build walls & barricades
For each clerk you place here you can either:
• build a barricade - pay any combination of 2
gold/wood/stone to build a barricade, place it in any
empty slot, and gain 2 Honor, or
• build a wall - pay any combination of gold/wood/stone
equal to the cost shown on the wall level (5/10/15) and
get Honor equal to the total paid.
You must use any resources in the Warehouse before your
own, but you still get the full amount of Honor (even if you
don’t spend any of your own resources).
War academy – gain Tactics cards
For each clerk you place here you can draw a Tactics card.
(but both red spots must be filled with clerks by one or more
players to activate the location).
Barracks – recruit soldiers
For each clerk you place here, pay the cost to recruit one
soldier and either:
• attack with them immediately – either place a Horseman
or Spearman on a Horde card and claim the reward for
the covered vital spots, or place an Archer on a firing
spot and fire, putting a wound on any Vital spot without
taking the reward, or
• place the soldier in a rest zone.
Shame: If you’re the only player with a clerk or clerks in the
location, take a Shame token.
Emperor’s embassy – add clerks and advisors
Resolve clerks here individually in Tea order. For each clerk
you can either:
• add a clerk - pay 2 gold to add a clerk to your pool, or
• hire an advisor - pay gold equal to the total number of
advisors (active and supporting) you will have after hiring
this one (e.g. pay 3 to hire a 3rd advisor), then take any
advisor card from the track and place it as Active (beside
your general) or Supporting (under your general). Shift
remaining advisor cards left and fill empty slots.
Logistics center – reposition soldiers
For each clerk you place here you can move any number of
soldiers from:
• one rest zone to another, and/or
• one firing spot to another (on any wall section) or to a
rest zone.
You can’t move Archers from a rest zone to a firing spot on
a wall, or use the Logistics Centre to attack (move to a
Horde card).
ATTACKING THE HORDES
You can attack Horde cards by recruiting new soldiers in the
Barracks or by playing an Attack Order Command card.
Soldiers are considered to be attacking when they are:
• recruited and placed immediately on a Horde card, or
• placed on a Horde card from a Rest zone with an Attack soldier. Killed soldiers go to your pool, remaining
order, or soldiers and those saved with Chi go the Rest zone.
• Archers firing from a wall. 4. If there are any other Horde cards in the column, move
Placing soldiers them closer to the wall.
Soldiers that are… can attack a Horde card… BREACHES
1. Give each player 1 Shame for each Horde card in that
In a rest zone in the same wall section when
section on which they don’t have at least 1 soldier.
given an Attack order
2. Each player removes:
Recruited at the in any wall section, immediately
- all their Archers on that wall section, and
Barracks after being recruited
- a number of soldiers on each Horde card equal to
This soldier… can be placed… the current turn’s Lethality value, shown on the
Spearmen only in the first row of Horde right side of the Turn track. All soldiers on all
cards and walls die simultaneously.
cards (next to the wall)
3. Replace the removed soldiers with wound markers.
Horsemen on any Horde card in the section,
4. Choose to pay 2 Chi per soldier to save them into the
on 2 adjacent, unoccupied, non-
Rest zone instead of killing them (or use a Withdrawal
diagonal Vital spots
tactic card).
Archers only on firing spots on the walls. Any remaining soldiers stay on the Horde card, killed
soldiers go to your pool, saved soldiers go to the Rest zone.
Wounds
When you attack with an Archer, put it in an open firing spot
SHAME TOKENS
on the wall (if it’s not there already), then place a wound You get a Shame token if:
marker on a Vital spot on any Horde card in that wall section • a Horde card breaches a wall and you have no soldiers
(without receiving the reward). there, or
When you attack with a Spearman or Horseman, gain the • you’re the only player to activate a clerk in a location with
reward on the Vital spots you cover. Vital spots covered by a a Shame flag - Production Locations and the Barracks -
Spearman or Horseman count as a Wound. unless you’re doing an Advanced Activation.
Soldiers on a Horde card can’t move or attack and stay on Put the token either under a soldier in your pool or in any
the Horde card until it’s defeated or they’re killed/saved. unoccupied Horde Shame slot. You can’t recruit a Soldiers
with a Shame token unless you pay 2 Chi to remove the
DEFEATING HORDE CARDS token in Summer. If you can’t receive or place a Shame
token for any reason, lose 5 Honor immediately.
In Autumn, check for Horde Defeat: if all of a Horde card’s
Vital spots are covered by Soldiers or Wound markers, then:
1. Give 2 Honor to each player with at least 1 soldier on
TEA TRACK
Tea order decides turn initiative and the order for:
the card, and 2 Honor for each Archer in firing spots of
that section of wall. • placing Command cards
2. The player whose soldiers cover the most vital spots on • moving clerks or soldiers with the ‘Other Players’ effect
the card places the Horde card face-down in front of on Command cards
their screen (including any Shame tokens on it). • activating clerks within locations
3. Each player kills their soldiers on the Horde card (not • claiming a defeated horde in a draw.
on the wall) as per the Lethality level and decide
whether to save any of them by paying 2 Chi per