Over 100 tiles matching the colors of the leaders are placed in a cloth bag. Players begin the game with six tiles drawn randomly and a shield to hide the tiles behind. Leaders can only be placed on the gameboard on any square that shares a side with a temple. Placing a leader on the gameboard starts a kingdom. When a player places a tile in a kingdom that matches that player's leader that player scores a victory point in that color.
Players score in all four colors, of course, but only the weakest color counts toward victory.
As the kingdoms grow and victory points mount, conflict becomes inevitable. An internal conflict arises when one leader is dropped into a kingdom where a leader of the same color already exists. When leaders of the same exist in a kingdom because of the merger of kingdoms, you have an external conflict. Both conflicts are solved similarly. Both players determine the number of properly colored tiles in the kingdom supporting the individual leader.