Definitions

  • Action: Each action card play requires the use of one action. A card can increase the numbers of actions (and thus cards playable) if it says "+N Actions". Each turn the player starts with 1 action.
  • Action card: A card that can be played as an action.
  • Action phase: The phase of a player's turn where they may play action cards.
  • Buy: The number of purchases a player may make on their turn. A card can increase the numbers of buy (and thus cards purchased) if it says "+N Buys". Each turn the player starts with 1 buy.
  • Buy phase: The phase of a turn where a player can purchase cards.
  • Clean up phase: The end of a players turn, where all cards in the hand, play area, and treasures spent are played in the discard pile.
  • Discard pile: The pile of cards a player cannot use. Cards used by the player are placed here during the clean up phase. Any card gained is typically added to the discard.
  • Draw: Adding a card from the draw pile to a player's hand. A card can increase the number of draws (and thus cards in the hand) if it says "+N Draw".
  • Draw pile: The pile of cards the player may draw from. When depleted, the discard pile is shuffled to form a new draw pile.
  • Hand: Cards a player can play. Default hand is 5 cards drawn from the draw pile.
  • Kingdom: The decks of action cards, treasure cards, and victory cards that make up a game.
  • Play area: Where cards are played.
  • Trash: Some cards allow you to trash other cards. This refers to moving cards to the trash pile, which removes them from play.
  • Treasure: During the buy phase, a player may purchase a card up to the amount of treasure in play. I will sometimes refer to this as "coin."
  • Treasure cards: Copper, silver, and gold cards, worth 1, 2, and 3 treasure respectively.
  • Victory cards: Estate, duchy, and province cards, worth 1, 3, and 5 victory points respectively.
  • Victory point: A point scored at the end of the game. The player with the most victory points win.

Gameplay

The game is first set up by drawing 10 random action cards. Those action cards, combined with decks of copper, silver, gold, estate, duchy, and province cards form the Kingdom. Players start with 7 copper and 3 estates, and shuffle them into their draw pile.

Each player's turn starts with their action phase, where they may play action cards. Some cards may give the player additional actions, cards, buys, or treasure. Many cards also have special and unique abilities, such as discarding cards or trashing them. At the end of the action phase, the player enters their buy phase, where they can purchase a card based on the amount of treasure they possess this turn. Finally, the player enters the clean-up phase, where they discard all cards in the play area and remaining in their hand, and draw 5 new cards from their draw pile.

The game ends when either the province pile runs out of cards, or any three piles run out of cards. At this point the player with the most points win. If there is a tie, the player with the fewest number of turns wins.