Game Objective: Conquer Glory in Trajan's Empire!

Welcome, future consuls of Rome! In Trajan, your objective is simple yet challenging: accumulate the most victory points. How? Through the tactical manipulation of six different actions, seizing every opportunity that Trajan's Empire offers. The key to success lies in the intelligent allocation of your action markers in your action circle. You'll need to plan several turns ahead, anticipate your opponents' moves, and, of course, know the right time to act to claim those important tiles. Prepare for a strategic journey where every decision counts!

Preparation (Setup): Building Your Empire

To begin your journey in Trajan, follow these steps to set up the board and prepare your domains:

1. Central Board: Open the game board in the center of the table. It shows the six action areas of the Roman Empire.
2. Initial Components per Player: Each player chooses a color and receives:
   • 1 player board
   • 1 military leader pawn
   • 15 small pawns (your legionaries and workers)
   • 2 discs (for victory points and senate)
   • 1 Arch of Trajan
   • 12 action markers (2 of each color: blue, yellow, light green, orange, pink, and white)
3. Special Tiles:
   • Separate the extra action tiles and forum tiles by their backs, shuffle them, and form face-down stacks.
   • Shuffle the demand tiles, randomly remove 3 from the game, and place the remaining face-down.
4. Filling the Board:
   • Place 10 forum tiles face-up in the provinces (1 in each).
   • Add 6 more (2 players), 9 (3 players), or 12 (4 players) forum tiles in the designated forum space.
   • Place 3 extra action tiles in the yellow forum spaces.
   • Fill all 20 construction district spaces with 1 construction tile in each space.
   • Place the ship tiles in the 3 harbors, colored side up.
5. Time Marker: Place the time marker on the starting space of the cycle track, according to the number of players.
6. Initial Pawn Placement:
   • All players allocate their military leader and one small pawn to the military camp.
   • Each player allocates one small pawn to the worker camp.
   • The remaining 13 small pawns stay in the specific space on their player board.
7. Setting Up the Player Board:
   • Each player places their Arch of Trajan in the space marked “I” on their player board.
   • Players allocate their action markers into the basins on their boards, filling each with 2 markers of any color.
8. Trajan Tiles: Arrange the Trajan tiles by categories (icons), shuffle each stack separately, and arrange each in the 6 spaces on the board.
9. Scoring and Senate Tracks:
   • Players stack their discs on the starting space of the victory point track (order doesn't matter here).
   • The starting player places one of their discs on the starting space of the senate track. Clockwise, the other players stack their discs on top of the others (order matters for tie-breaking!).
10. Bonus Tiles:
    • Each player draws one bonus tile from the bag and places it in front of them, yellow side up.
    • The starting player draws 2 more bonus tiles and places them on the board, to the right of the senate track, yellow side up. Keep the bag nearby.
11. Commodity Cards:
    • Shuffle the commodity cards and form a face-down stack.
    • Reveal the top card to a discard pile and the next to a second discard pile.
    • Starting with the first player, each draws 3 commodity cards, taking from any pile (replenish empty discards).
12. Initial Trajan Tiles: In turn order, each player selects 3 Trajan tiles (no more than 1 of each type) and places them in the spaces marked II, IV, and VI on their player boards.

The Game Turn: Strategy in Action

A game of Trajan lasts 1 year, divided into four quarter-year phases, each with 4 rounds. Each round is a cycle of the time marker. Your turn is divided into three mandatory and optional steps:

1. Move Action Markers and Update the Time Marker (Mandatory)
   • Choose a Tray: Select a tray in your action circle that contains at least 1 action marker.
   • Collect and Distribute: Take all action markers from that tray. Announce the number aloud.
   • Clockwise Distribution: Place the action markers, one by one, into the subsequent trays clockwise, leaving one in each tray. You decide which color to place in each tray.
   • Target Tray: The tray where you place the last action marker is the target tray.
   • Update Time: Your right-hand neighbor advances the time marker the same number of spaces as you moved the action markers. Tip: The number of markers you move influences the round's duration!
2. Fulfill a Trajan Tile (If Possible)
   • If the target tray has a Trajan tile above it and contains action markers in the colors shown on the tile, you can fulfill the tile.
   • Remove the Trajan tile from your board, receive the indicated victory points, and perform the appropriate special action.
   • Most Trajan tiles are discarded after use, but some (bread, helmet, pyre) remain on your board until the end of the game, being effective for demands.
3. Perform an Action (Optional)
   • Regardless of whether you fulfilled a Trajan tile, you can perform the action associated with the target tray.
   • Harbor Action:
     • Draw 2 commodity cards and discard 1.
     • Take 1 card from the top of a discard pile.
     • Play 1 or 2 commodity cards to your personal collection and replenish your hand.
     • Load goods onto one of the three ships, playing the required card combination and receiving victory points. Flip the ship to its gray side if it's colored.
   • Forum Action: Choose any forum tile and place it on your player board.
   • Military Action:
     • Allocate 1 small pawn from your supply to the military camp (making it a legionary).
     • Move your military leader to an adjacent province. If there's a tile, collect it.
     • Reallocate 1 legionary from the military camp to your military leader's current province (if no other of your legionaries are there). Gain victory points from the province, reduced by 3 VP for each opposing legionary.
   • Trajan Action: Choose a Trajan tile from the 6 stacks and place it in the location indicated by your Arch of Trajan. Slide the Arch of Trajan to the next free space clockwise.
   • Senate Action: Advance your disc 1 space on the senate track and receive the indicated victory points. Place your disc on top of any other disc already there.
   • Construction Action:
     • Allocate 1 small pawn from your supply to the worker camp (making it a worker).
     • Reallocate a worker to a construction. The first construction can be anywhere; future ones must be adjacent. If there's a construction tile, collect it and gain victory points. If it's the first of that type, perform an extra action. You can allocate a worker to a construction already occupied by an opponent, but you don't gain the tile or VP, only the strategic position.

End of Game and Scoring: The Harvest of Glory

The game ends after the fourth and final quarter-year. But before final scoring, each quarter-year has its own scoring phase:

End of a Round

A round ends when the time marker reaches or passes the starting space of the track. Reveal a demand tile and leave it visible. The time marker continues from where it stopped. If there are already 3 demand tiles, the quarter-year ends.

End of the Quarter-Year

1. Meeting the People's Demands:
   • Each player must discard a relevant forum tile or display a Trajan tile with the required symbol for each of the 3 revealed demands.
   • Each Trajan tile can only be used once per quarter-year.
   • Used forum tiles are discarded; displayed Trajan tiles are kept.
   • If you cannot meet a demand, you lose victory points: -4 VP for 1 demand, -9 VP for 2, -15 VP for 3.
2. Balance of Power in the Senate:
   • Calculate your votes: position on the senate track + votes from senate tiles on your board.
   • The player with the most votes is the consul, chooses one of the two bonus tiles from the board (yellow side up).
   • The second with the most votes is the vice-consul, takes the remaining bonus tile (gray side up).
   • Ties are resolved by the highest position on the senate track; if still tied, by the disc on top of the stack.
   • Remove the discs from the senate track and form a new stack at the beginning, with the lowest number of votes at the bottom and the consul at the top.
3. Remove Tiles and Fill Spaces:
   • Remove from the game: used forum tiles, all senate tiles, all forum tiles (including extra action tiles).
   • Draw 2 new bonus tiles for the senate (yellow side up).
   • Draw new forum tiles for empty provinces (without tiles, military leaders, or legionaries).
   • Fill all forum spaces with new forum tiles and the 3 yellow spaces with new extra action tiles.
   • Flip the ship tiles back to their colored sides.
   • Remove the top quarter-year tile from the stack.

End of Game and Final Scoring

After the final quarter-year scoring, final scoring is calculated:

• Each commodity card in hand: 1 VP.
• Each pawn in the worker camp: 1 VP.
• Each pawn in the military camp: 1 VP.
• Each Trajan tile in your action circle: 1 VP.
• Each set of 3 construction tiles with identical icons: 10 VP.
• Each set of 4 construction tiles with identical icons: 20 VP.
• Bonus tiles: Points vary according to the bonus and whether it's on the yellow side (front) or gray side (back). For example, a yellow bonus tile might give 9 VP if you have a specific forum tile, while the gray one would give 6 VP.

The player with the highest total score wins! In case of a tie, the player with the highest position in the senate wins.

Tips for Winning: Be a True Emperor!

1. Plan Your Action Markers in Advance: The action circle is the heart of Trajan. Don't just think about the immediate action. Think about how the distribution of action markers will set up your next moves. Want to activate a specific Trajan tile? Make sure the necessary colors will be in the target tray when you need them!
2. Keep an Eye on the People's Demands and the Senate: The demand tiles and the senate are crucial sources of victory points (or point loss!). Try to collect forum tiles and Trajan tiles that meet the demands. In the senate, don't underestimate the power of senate tile votes to become consul and secure those valuable bonus tiles.
3. Diversify Your Actions, But Focus on Efficiency: While it's tempting to focus on a single area, Trajan rewards versatility. Explore harbor actions for commodity collections, military actions for province control, and construction actions for points and extra actions. However, always evaluate which action will bring the greatest benefit at that moment, considering opportunities and what your opponents might be planning.