How to Play

Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

1-4 players 45-90 min 7.4 Board Game Geek Rating

Players lead one of three northern factions—Scotsmen, Inuits, or Vikings—using pre-constructed decks with unique gameplay styles. Build your economy, sabotage opponents, and battle for territorial control in this standalone card game. Victory comes from developing the most prosperous civilization through strategic deck management and resource optimization.

Published 2019

Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Place the Scoreboard
Put the double-sided scoreboard where all players can see it, using either side
2
Position the Expedition board
Place it in the middle of the play area within reach of all players
3
Prepare Distant Islands
Shuffle the Distant Island cards and place them face down on their designated space
4
Prepare Nearby Islands
Shuffle the Nearby Island cards and place them face down on their designated space
5
Reveal Island cards
Draw 2 cards from both Island decks and place them face up in designated spaces
6
Arrange Action tiles
Shuffle the 5 Action tiles and place them in a random circle near the Expedition board (2-4 player side up)
7
Choose your Clan
Each player selects a Clan and takes its 3 Basic Field cards, 30-card Clan deck, 2 Clan Ship tokens, and Clan score marker
8
Set up Basic Fields
Place your 3 Basic Fields face up in front of you and shuffle your Clan deck face down nearby
9
Take player components
Each player chooses a color and takes the matching Clan tile and 2 Clan action pawns
10
Position score markers
Each player places their Clan score marker on the 0 space of the scoreboard
11
Create general supply
Place all Goods markers and tokens within easy reach of all players
12
Collect starting resources
Take the Goods shown on your Basic Field cards plus 5 Workers
13
Determine first player
Randomly select first player who takes the First Player marker
14
Draw starting hand
Each player draws 5 cards, keeps 3, and discards 2 to their discard pile

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Lookout Phase
All players may acquire up to 4 new cards simultaneously
2
Action Phase
Players take turns performing one action at a time, starting with first player
3
Expedition Phase
Ships resolve in queue order to Pillage or Conquer Islands
4
Cleanup Phase
Refresh Workers, unexhaust cards, retrieve pawns, replace Island cards, pass first player marker
5
Set aside current hand
Put any cards already in hand to the side temporarily
6
Draw new cards
Each player draws 4 cards from their Clan deck
7
Keep cards by spending Workers
For each card you wish to keep, Spend 1 Worker to your Clan tile
8
Discard unwanted cards
Place cards you don't keep in your discard pile
9
Retrieve previous hand
Take back the cards you set aside
10
Resolve Storage effects
Gain any Goods from Storage abilities before Action phase begins
11
Build a Location
Pay the building cost shown on a card and place it in your Empire
12
Use a Clan action pawn
Place an unexhausted pawn on an Action tile to perform that action
13
Move your pawn for additional action
Spend 1 Food to move a pawn to an adjacent Action tile, flip to exhausted side, and perform that action
14
Play Boost cards
When declaring an action, play one Boost card matching that action before resolving
15
Raid an opponent
Spend 1 Raze token to exhaust an opponent's unexhausted Action Location
16
Use a Location action
Pay required costs, resolve ability, then exhaust the card by rotating 90 degrees
17
Pass
Once passed, take no more actions this round and cannot be targeted by opponents
18
Resolve Ships in order
Starting from the arrow, each Ship chooses one Island
19
Access Nearby Islands
Ships without Fish can only take face-up Nearby Islands or draw from that deck
20
Access Distant Islands
Ships must have Fish assigned to take any Distant Island
21
Pillage an Island
Take Goods shown in the Pillage space, then discard the Island card
22
Conquer an Island
Must have Raze token assigned; add the Island to your Empire and gain Building Bonus
23
Return components
After resolving, return Ship to supply and discard any assigned Fish/Raze tokens
24
Exhausting cards
Rotate Action Locations 90 degrees right after using them
25
Spending Workers
Place spent Workers on your Clan tile, not the general supply
26
Gold substitution
Gold can replace any single Resource, but Resources cannot substitute for Gold
27
Field upgrades
Slide upgrade cards under existing Fields of matching type; gain only upgrade Goods when built

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Trigger game end
When any player reaches or passes 25 Victory Points during the Action phase, complete the current round
2
Skip final Cleanup
Do not perform the Cleanup phase in the final round
3
Calculate final score
Add to your current score:
4
Determine the winner
The player with the most Victory Points wins
5
Break ties with Locations
If tied, the player with the most Locations in their Empire wins
6
Break ties with Workers
If still tied, the player with the most Workers wins
7
Break ties with cards
If still tied, the player with the most cards in hand wins
8
Share victory
If still tied after all tiebreakers, tied players share the victory

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

Booghy plays... Empires of the North(2p, Rules, Playthrough, Review)

Booghy plays... Empires of the North(2p, Rules, Playthrough, Review)

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Cum se joaca Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

Cum se joaca Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

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