Empire - Variants

Auction variant

All players ante, and are dealt three plaques face-down; the players may look at their own plaques.

Four bidding rounds follow.

In each bidding round, one player is designated ‘first player’. This is initially the player to the dealer’s left, and moves left at the start of each bidding round. A number of plaques equal to the number of players are placed face-up in the centre. After the players have examined the plaques, the first player can open bidding by placing one or more tokens in front of him, or passing. Bidding continues clockwise; a player may bid any number of tokens, or may add to his current bid if he has not yet passed. The bidding is over once all players have passed.

Beginning with the player with the highest bid and continuing in descending order, each player selects one of the face-up plaques and places it face-up in his tableau. If two or more players have bid the same number of tokens (or have bid no tokens at all), selection order amongst those players is clockwise, beginning with the first player.

Once all plaques have been selected, all tokens bid in that round go into the pot.

After all four bidding rounds are completed, each player reveals his three hidden plaques to complete his tableau, and the player with the ranking tableau wins the pot.

Concealed Draw variant

Each player begins the game with two tokens.

Each player is dealt seven plaques face-down; the players may look at their own plaques.

Play begins with the player to the dealer’s left. In his turn, a player may either draw, or declare.

If he elects to draw, he may draw a face-down plaque (if any remain), or any one face-up plaque from the centre. He then discards one plaque from his tableau face-up in the centre.

Instead, he may declare he is content with his tableau as it stands. Once a player has declared, play continues until it returns to the declaring player once more; at this point, all players reveal their tableaux.

The player with the ranking tableau at the end of the round nominates one other player, who discards one token. A player with no remaining tokens is out, and is not dealt in to the next round.

The last player with any tokens remaining is declared the winner.