How to play

Reading a count

• Tokens. A count shows as 10 tokens. Red are the Leader's, blue the Opposition's.
• Wedges. The dial on the next token shows wedges. 5 wedges make 1 token.
  3 of 5 wedges filled. Win by 2 more clout and the token turns red.
• More is better for the Leader. Every goal is a count to reach.
• $FIAT is Freedonia's Infallible Autocrat Token, the regime's own coin. It pays for every card.

1 · The year turns

1. Get $FIAT. Each side gets as much as the year number, up to 6. The Leader gets 2 more when playing their deck's own ambition, and 2 more on Story. Unspent $FIAT is lost.
2. Holding pays. Each venue where a card stands moves its count 1 wedge toward that card's side.
3. Cards age. Every standing card but a Bastion loses 1 clout. A card at 0 goes to its owner's discard.
4. Draw. Each side draws 3 cards (not in year 1). A hand holds 6. If the draw would go over, first discard cards of your choice.

The moment the Court, the Newsroom, the Streets or the Club reaches 0, the Opposition wins: in the reveal, or as the year turns. Parliament counts only at an election.

2 · Lay and reveal

5. The Opposition lays its cards face down. Up to 2 go in each venue, each in one of its homes, and each is paid for. It may also play its Countermove, face up.
6. You see where its cards are, how many, and whose face is on them. Nothing else.
7. The Leader lays the same way, and may play their Executive Order face up. You can take a card back until you seal the year.
8. Reveal, venue by venue from left to right. This year's cards turn face up and each rolls the die once. Standing cards don't roll.
9. The election. In an election year, once every venue is decided: Parliament at 0 loses, and every goal met wins. Otherwise a new year begins.

3 · Deciding a venue

1. Add up the clout of each side's cards in the venue: the cards laid this year and the cards standing there.
2. The higher total wins. The count moves 1 wedge for each point of difference, up to 4: 8 against 5 moves it 3 wedges, 12 against 3 moves it 4. The Opposition moves it away from the Leader; the Leader, toward their ambition.
3. The winner's 2 strongest cards stand. On a tie in strength, the newer stays. A Bastion always stays. Every other card there goes to its owner's discard.
4. Guarded. A venue where 2 of the Leader's cards stand is guarded. The Opposition has 1 less clout attacking it, 2 less if the two cards are of one category.
5. A tie moves nothing. This year's cards go to the discard; the standing cards stay.

Backfire. A card that rolls a red face backfires. For that year its clout counts for the other side and its side effect runs the other way. Then it goes to the discard.

Side effects. A card that lands moves the count in its When it lands box, wherever it was laid and whoever wins. Red wedges move it toward the Leader, blue toward the Opposition.

Card abilities

• Combo. +2 clout while your side held the venue shown at the start of the year.
• Same kind (Leader's cards). +1 clout when you lay a card where a card of the same kind already stands for you.
• Muzzle. From the reveal it lands in, and for as long as it stands, the other side has 1 less clout in the venue it names, whichever of its own venues the card was laid in.
• Turncoat. While your turncoat is in a venue, an enemy card that backfires there joins your side. Win the venue and it stands for you.
• Far-reaching. Weak in its own venue, but its side effect moves 5 wedges, a whole token. It has no other ability.
• One-off. When it leaves the board, it leaves the game.
• Bastion. It never ages, and it always stays when your side wins its venue. While it stands, its venue is guarded, even alone. Attacks on it lose 1 more clout.

Rare powers

• Suspend the election (Delay the Elections, Cancel Elections, Martial Law, the Indefinite Emergency). While one stands for you, no election is held. You win at the end of any year when every goal is met for the second year running. Each suspended year sends 2 wedges of people into the Streets.
• Aim the anger (The Scapegoat, The Foreign Hand, The Enemy at the Gates, The Unity Curfew). For 3 years while it stands, Opposition moves that would send people into the Streets keep them at home instead.

Clout, cost and risk

The stronger a card, the more it costs, the likelier it is to backfire, and the further its side effect moves a count. Every card prints all of these. Heavy cards are rare: save one for the year it matters.

Your hand and deck

• Opening hand. Draw 4. Once, you may put any of them under your deck and draw as many again.
• Call in a favour. Once a year, before laying, pay 1 $FIAT to swap one card in hand for the top card of your deck.
• Empty deck. Shuffle your discard. It becomes your deck.
• The clock (Crisis only). Each turn has 60 seconds. When time runs out, the turn ends with what is laid.

The Opposition's tricks

• Decoys. Once a year it may lay one blank card face down, free, where it lays nothing else. Revealed, it has no clout and is removed.

The Record

Some moves make history. Each side has six Record cards, kept out of its deck. A card marked Brings an answer (yours) or Brings a pretext (theirs) calls one when it lands: it joins the other side's hand, past the limit if need be. A side never holds the same Record card twice, and one shed unplayed goes back to the Record, to be called again. Played, a Record card leaves the game. Ban the papers, and The Rival Paper joins the Opposition's hand. Call a general strike, and the Leader gets Deploy Emergency Forces.

Anything you do can and will be used against you.

Executive Orders and Countermoves

Each side has one order card per term (years 1–4, 5–8 and so on), face up for both to see. Play it free, with your cards, in any one year. An unused order is lost when the term ends.

The Leader's Executive Order comes with the deck:

The Opposition's Countermove is the Injunction. It names a venue; for one year, the Leader may not lay cards there.

A new order each term. The Opposition always gets one. The Leader gets one only if an election was held.

How to win

• The Leader wins at an election if every goal of their ambition is met. Elections are in years 4, 8, 12 and so on.
• Ruled for life. A Leader still in power at the end of year 40 also wins, whatever the ambition.
• The Opposition wins if any count reaches 0. Parliament's counts only at an election.

Difficulty (against the computer)

• Story. You start with 3 deputies and 3 wedges of a fourth, and get 2 more $FIAT a year. The Opposition lays at most 1 card per venue and never bluffs.
• Normal. The rules as written.
• Hard. No extra $FIAT for your deck's own ambition.
• Crisis. No extra $FIAT, only 1 deputy and 4 wedges at the start, and a 60-second clock.