Empire
The Card Game

The object of the game is to build an “Empire” by collecting 4 “pillars”. First person to have 4 pillars and play a card to end their turn wins the game.  

Each player is dealt 10 cards.

The rest of the cards are placed in the middle face down. This is the pick up “resources” pile.

A paper scissors rock “battle” determines who goes first.

On the first round no player can “secure & sabotage”, “steal”, “trade” or “battle”. They simply pick up a card from the resource pile in the middle and choose to discard a card by placing it on their discarded resources pile face up in front of them. Each player will have their own discarded card pile in front of them. Once a player has discarded a card, their turn is complete.

Starting from the second round, each player takes turns to complete the following actions:

1. Picks up a card from the middle “resources” pile. 

2. Selects to either “steal”, “trade” or “battle” a card from another player.

How to “Steal” a card: 

Announce that you are going to “steal” a card, then take a card from any other players discarded resource pile and add it to your hand. You cannot steal a “2” and you can only take the top card. 2’s protect cards from being stolen.

How to “Trade” a card: 

Announce that you are going to “trade” a card. Place any card from your hand on the table. Once this has been tabled you must trade the card. Every player then chooses a card from their own hand and places it on the table. You then choose a tabled card to swap with your card and place it in your hand. All players return their cards to their hand. 

How to “Battle” for a card: 

Announce you are going to “Battle”. Choose a player and demand from them any card. They then indicate if they have the requested card or they do not. If they have do not have the card then the  “battle” is over, if they do have the card then a paper, scissors, rock battle commences to determine if you get the card. If you lose, your opponent gets to keep their card, if you win you take the card from your opponent and add it to your hand. 

3. If you have and choose to, then put down a “pillar”. A “pillar” is made up of a set of 4 of the same card. The first pillar you put down decides what sort of empire you are building and all subsequent pillars you put down must consist of pillars from that empire set.

 Empire Sets: 

The “Empire of the Thief” consists of pillars of 3’s, 4’s, 5’s,6’s. That is to win the game you must eventually put down 4 x 3’s, 4 x 4’s, 4 x 5’s, 4 x 6’s.

 The “Empire of the Merchant” consists of pillars of 7’s, 8’s, 9’s, 10’s. That is to win the game you must eventually put down 4 x 7’s, 4 x 8’s, 4 x 9’s, 4 x 10’s.

The “Empire of the Warlord” consists of pillars of J’s, Q’s, K’s, A’s. That is to win the game you must eventually put down 4 x J’s, 4 x Q’s, 4 x K’s, 4 x A’s. 

Bonuses:

When you have put down your first pillar you immediately pick up 6 additional cards from the “resource” pick up pile. 

After you have put down your second pillar you recieve an additional action every turn depending on on what sort of Empire you are building. This begins on the turn you put down the second pillar.

The “Empire of the Thief” bonus action: Every turn you can get an additional “steal”.

The “Empire of the Merchant” bonus action: Every turn you get an additional “trade”.

 The “Empire of the Warlord” Bonus action: Every turn you get an additional “battle”.

4. End your turn by placing a card face up on your discard resource pile in front of you.

Special Cards:

2’s are called “security & sabotage” cards. When you place a 2 on your discard “resource” pile at the end of your turn you get to choose someone to get skipped on their turn. You can not load up skips on a single player so if a player already has a pending skip they cannot be skipped again. Placing a 2 on your discard pile also prevents cards being picked up from your discard pile. 

Jokers are wild cards and can be used to make “pillars”. You can use as many jokers as you want to make up a “pillar”.

5. As soon as a player has 4 pillars and has ended their turn by playing a card on their discard pile they have built their “Empire” and have won the game. Note: A player must discard a card to end the game.

For an extended version: Multiple games are played until a player has got each of the empire sets. That is they have won, in any order,  a game by getting “Empire of the Thief”, won another with “Empire of the Merchant” and another with “Empire of the Warlord”.  The first player to achieve all three is anointed Emperor Overlord and shall forever be remembered.