4. Sequence of Play

The game is divided into Ages, each of which consists of 4 Rounds. Each Round is broken down into 5 Phases:

### 1. Draw Cards Phase

* **A.** Reveal Events
* **B.** Draw Action Cards
* **C.** Pay to keep Action Cards
* **D.** Pick/Replace Missions

### 2. Action Phase

Players take Turns performing 1 Action at a time, until all players have Passed.

### 3. Peace & Rebels Phase

* **A.** Remove Casus Belli and Truces
* **B.** NPR Invasions
* **C.** Rebels Siege or Move
* **D.** Peace Resolution
* **E.** Prestige Penalties
* **F.** Interregnum
* **G.** Religious Dissent
* **H.** Gain/Remove Unrest
* **I.** Roll Rebel Dice

### 4. Income & Upkeep Phase

* **A.** Cut Costs
* **B.** Collect Income minus Costs
* **C.** Corruption
* **D.** Collect Monarch Power
* **E.** Score Prestige

### 5. Cleanup Phase

* **A.** Update & Refresh
* **B.** Board and Status Mat cleanup
* **C.** Discard down to a hand size of 5 cards
* **D.** End of Age Routine

## 4.1 Phase 1: Draw Cards

### A. Reveal Events

Draw Event Cards according to the chosen scenario (normally equal to the number of players plus 1) from the top of the Event Deck, and place them in a face-down display next to the Event Deck. Then, flip the first 3 of these cards face-up.

### B. Draw Action Cards

Going in Turn order, each player then draws 3 Action Cards, in any combination, from any of the 3 Action Card decks (Administrative, Diplomatic, or Military). Players may draw cards one by one, and should keep these cards secret from their Opponents.

### C. Pay to keep Action Cards

Players must pay 2`D` for each drawn card that they wish to keep. Any drawn cards not paid for must be discarded.

### D. Pick/Replace Missions

During this step, any player who has fewer than 2 Missions in their hand may pick new Missions (max. 2 in hand). All Players may also replace any of their currently held Missions.

## 4.2 Phase 2: Actions

In this phase players take Turns in clockwise order, starting with the player who has the First Player token (normally the first player to Pass in the previous Round). The scenario setup will identify the starting First Player.

### Taking a Turn

On their Turn, the Active Player may choose to perform either a Basic Action or play an Action Card from their hand. Most Actions have Monarch Power costs that must be paid with `d` of the appropriate type. Basic Actions are listed below and on the Player Aids, and explained in detail in the chapter on Basic Actions (p. 12).

There are 5 Minor Actions that may be performed without using a Turn. These may be performed in addition to any other Action, or sometimes even during another player's Turn. A player cannot perform a Minor Action alone on their Turn, they must also perform another Action.

#### Taking an Event

Each player must take the ***Event*** Action exactly once during the Action Phase, but they may choose when to do this; a player cannot Pass if they have not taken this Action.

When a player takes their ***Event*** Action, they must move their Round Status marker to the Event Taken space on the Status Mat.

#### Unpicked Event

After all players have taken an Event, the bottom row of symbols on any unpicked Event will be resolved, but the Event text itself will not take effect (see p. 40).

### Passing

The first player to Pass immediately collects 5`D` from the General Supply and places their Round Status marker on the *Has Passed – 1st* space on the Status Mat. They will also receive the First Player token at the end of the Round. If the current First Player is the first to Pass, the First Player token instead goes to the second player to Pass. Depending on the total number of players, the second, third, and fourth players to Pass may also be eligible to collect Ducats; see the table below.

Passing takes a Turn. A player may take Minor Actions in the same Turn in which they Pass.

A player that has Passed may not take any further Actions in that Round.

No one may Declare War on a player who has Passed, or their NPR Allies.

#### Triggering End of Action Phase

When there are no more players eligible to receive Ducats for Passing, each remaining player gets to take 1 more Action of their choice. For each player who has taken an Event at this point, this is their final Turn.

After this, if any players have still not taken an Event this Round, those players must take one final Turn to perform their Event Action.

Once a player has taken their final Turn, they are considered to have Passed.

## 4.3 Phase 3: Peace & Rebels

Once all players have Passed, the Peace & Rebels Phase begins. Follow the steps below, in sequence:

### A. Remove Casus Belli and Truces

Remove all CB and Truce tokens from the board. A player removing a CB loses `2` if not at War with the Realm it is removed from.

### B. NPR Invasions

If an NPR which is not an Active Ally is at War with any PR(s), and none of the Areas where that NPR currently Controls Provinces contain Units Hostile to the NPR, the PR(s) may now face an Invasion from that NPR. Resolve this according to the steps described on page 36.

### C. Rebels Siege or Move

Perform this step if there are any Rebel Units (`?`) on the board. Resolve Areas in order of most `?`to fewest `?` (break ties alphabetically).

* **For Areas with both`?`and`u`:** The `?` in each such Area now Siege any `t`/`v` with `u` that they can. Each `?`has a Siege Strength of 1 (see p. 37). The `?` will Siege Large Provinces first when possible (otherwise pick alphabetically).
	+ **Core Provinces:** Place a Rebel Town (`R`) on top of the Owner's `t`, and cover the rightmost vacant slot on their Town Track with a `z`.
	+ **Non-Core Provinces are Liberated** (see p. 37): Owners must return `t`/`v` to their Player Mat and place a CB token on the new Province Owner.
* **For each Area with`?`and no`u`:**
	1. Move all but 1`?` to an Area with `u` which is adjacent by Land, if any (prefer the Area with most `u`, then most PR `t`, then alphabetically). `?`cannot move to an Area in which they are outnumbered by PR Land Units.
	2. Resolve Battle immediately if there are any PR Land Units in this Area, following the normal Rules for Rebels (see p. 37). Rebels do not fight other Rebel Units.
	3. If there were no eligible adjacent Areas to move to, remove 1`?`.

### D. Peace Resolution

This step only occurs if there are any ongoing Wars, and all Wars are then resolved according to the sequence described in section 10.1 (see p. 29), and summarized here:

1. In Turn order, resolve all Wars where **Automatic White Peace** requirements have been met.
2. In Turn order, resolve all Wars where a **Total Victory** has been achieved by a PR.
3. Then, handle **Partial Victories** and **Inconclusive Wars** in Turn order. Each player must resolve all the Wars that they wish to (and can) resolve, before moving on to the next player.
4. Finally, handle the **Aftermath**, returning any Land Units in Neutral Areas to their Owners' Realms, flipping all `K` back to their `A` side, and discarding all Allied Units, for all PRs that are now at Peace.

### E. Prestige Penalties

* **Disputed Succession:** Flip over all `M` that still display their `L` side. Each player loses `3` for each of their `M` getting flipped. A player may avoid this penalty if they are the only PR to have an `A` on the Realm with the `L` on it, and also have the most `I` (min. 2`I`) in that Realm if it is an NPR.
* **Occupied Towns:** Players who now have `t` that are Occupied by Enemies or Rebels lose `0` equal to their Tax Value (max. 5).

### F. Interregnum

Players with an Interregnum (no Ruler) lose 1`s`, and must flip `M` on their Realm to reveal the `L` side.

### G. Religious Dissent

* Players who have Religious Dissent (a Religion other than their State Religion) in any of their Areas must add `u` to 1 of their `t` (flip disc to reveal `u`) in each affected Area.
* Players who have `v` in any Areas with a Religion other than their State Religion, must, in 1 affected Area, either remove 1`I`, or add `u` to 1 of their `v` there.

### H. Gain/Remove Unrest

1. **Players still at War** must add `u` to 2 of their `t`.
2. **Players with -2`s`** or lower must add `u` to 1 of their `t`.
3. **Players with +2`s`** or higher may remove `u` from 1 of their Provinces (flip disc to reveal shield).

### I. Roll Rebel Dice

Each player must roll a Rebel Die for each of their `t` or `v` with `u`. Rebel Dice are rolled on a per-Area basis. The possible outcomes of these dice rolls are described on page 37.

## 4.4 Phase 4: Income & Upkeep

In this phase, players pay Costs, collect Tax Income and `d`, and score `0`. All players perform this Phase simultaneously.

During this phase, players are allowed to take (but not repay) Loans, as described in the Take/Repay Loans Minor Action.

### A. Cut Costs

To reduce their expenses, players may (and must, if necessary to avoid Bankruptcy in Step B):

* Fire any Advisors they like, by discarding those Advisors' cards.
* Disband any of their Military Units. Return any disbanded Regular Units to Available `m`, Ships to Supply, and Mercenary Units to the General Supply.
* Recall Ships at sea. Ships may return to any Friendly Port within reach of their normal Movement, via non-Hostile Sea Zones, at no `c` cost.

### C. Corruption

Cost to keep Ducats in your Treasury (you may decide not to keep all of your Ducats):

* **0–49** `D`: no cost
* **50–59** `D`: pay 1`a` or gain 1`,`
* **60–69** `D`: pay 2`a`; gain 1`,` per unpaid `a`
* **70–79** `D`: pay 3`a`; gain 1`,` per unpaid `a`
* **Etc.**

### D. Collect Monarch Power

Players then collect Monarch Power (`d`), calculated as follows:

* For each type of Monarch Power, add the Ruler's Skill of the associated type to that of the appropriate Advisor. (A PR in Interregnum is considered to have a base Skill of 1 in each Monarch Power field.)
* **Players with +3**`s` receive 2`d` more, of any types chosen by the player.
* **Players with -3**`s` receive 1`d` fewer, of any type chosen by the player.
* **The Papal Controller** receives +1`b`.
* **The Emperor of the HRE** may receive additional `d` depending on their `E`.
* Players with certain Government Form Ideas may receive additional `d`.

### E. Score Prestige

* A player who is uncontested Papal Controller scores `0` equal to the number of Catholic PRs minus 1 (max. `3`).
* If `E` is at 6, the Emperor scores `1`.
* Players with the "*Absolute Monarchy*" Idea and positive `s` score `1`.
* Score any active Crusade (see p. 46) and/or Power Struggle (see p. 43), and remove the Crusade/Excommunicated token and all `§` tokens.

## 4.5 Phase 5: Cleanup

### A. Update and refresh

All players must:

1. **Disband all Allied Units** from their Armies, placing them in Available `m`.
2. **Update Manpower Reserve** to reflect new `m` totals, if they have changed (from `t`/`v` gained or lost, etc.) this Round. Count Deployed Regular Units as part of this total. Increase `m` by adding Units from Supply to Available `m`. Reduce `m` by choosing Units to return to Supply.
3. **Refresh Exhausted** `m` and repair Heavy Ships in Ports. Move ½ of Exhausted `m` (min. 3, max. 6) to Available `m`.
4. **Refresh all Merchants** by returning them to their upright position.
5. **Add `<` to the Colonist Pool** equal to their number of Colonial `G` on the board (each PR may add max. 4`<`).
6. **Remove any `z`** from their Changed Nat. Focus slot and return it to their Supply.

### B. Board and Status Mat Cleanup

1. **Remove `A` from Bots, and from DNPRs** that have a Tax Income of 10+`D`.
2. **Remove all `H` from the map boards.**
3. **Adjust Imperial** `I` to match `E`. The Emperor may (re)distribute Imperial `I` in any HRE Areas with space.
4. **Remove all Units from Imperial** `m` if the Emperor is at Peace.
5. **Remove any Tag chits** from the *Committed to Crusade* slot, and, if the Emperor is at Peace, the *Defending the HRE* slot.
6. **Pass the First Player token** to the player whose Round Status marker is in the *Has Passed – 1st* space (or the *2nd* space if the first to pass is the current First Player)
7. **Reset all Round Status markers** to the Event not Taken space.

### C. Discard down to 5 Action Cards

All players must discard down to a maximum hand size of 5 Action Cards. Players may choose which card(s) to discard.

Display Cards that are in play do not count towards the 5-card limit.

### D. End of Age Routine

If it is the end of an Age, perform the End of Age Routine described below.

## 4.6 End of Age Routine

When all players have completed Phase 5, and there are no more Events left in the deck for the current Age, perform the following steps in order:

1. Prepare and place the **Event Deck** for the next Age.

 **Note:** If there is no next Age, move on to Final Scoring instead (see section 4.7).

1. Remove all **Milestones** from the previous Age from the game, and replace them with 4 Milestones drawn from the deck belonging to the next Age.
2. Replace any unresearched non-Basic **Ideas** on display with random replacements of the same type.
3. The player with the least `0` on the Prestige Track may choose to replace 1 new Idea or Milestone on display with a card of their choice, chosen from the matching deck. If there is a tie for least `0`, skip this step.
4. Players who have at least 1`M` in play score `1`, and must then (in updated Turn order) remove 1 of their `M` from the board (from an NPR if possible), or pay 2`b` to avoid this.

If a player removes their `M` from your Realm (forcing you to do the same from their Realm), you must still remove another `M` (if you have one), or pay 2`b`.

## 4.7 Final Scoring

Final Scoring is initiated at the end of the final Round. Unless otherwise specified in the scenario's Victory Conditions, this happens after completing Phase 5, when any of these three conditions apply:

* There are no more Event Cards remaining in the decks for the chosen scenario at the end of a Round.
* A player has 100+`0` on the Prestige Track, and is at least 20`0` ahead of all other players.
* A player has all their `t` (Large and Small) and `v` on the board at the end of Phase 5.

Prestige is scored according to the list below, unless the Victory Conditions for the chosen scenario state otherwise.

* Players may reveal and score any Missions in their hands whose requirements have been met (ignore any Mission Effects)
* `0` equal to their current Tax Income
* `1` per `F` in play
* `1` per `M` in play
* `2` per `A` in play
* `0` equal to the number of Catholic PRs for being Papal Controller
* `0` equal to Imperial Authority (`E`) for the Emperor of the HRE
* `0` equal to 2x current `s` (note that negative s provides negative `0`)
* Subtract `1` per Tax Value of `t` Occupied by Rebels or Enemies
* Subtract `1` per `,` in Treasury

The player with the most `0` wins. In the event of a tie, victory goes to the player with the most `d`. Break further ties in favor of the the player with the most `D` in their Treasury. If there is still a tie after this, the tied players share the victory.